“Play keeps us vital and alive.  It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable.  Without it, life just doesn’t taste good.” – Lucia Capocchione

I agree Lucia!  Play does make life more tasty.  Play does to life what salt does to food: it brings out the flavor.  When you sprinkle play in your life, you feel life’s taste buds come alive and dance with more flavor than was there before.

I feel like so many people discount play, but I find it to be incredibly important in life.  Just look at what these people have to say about the importance of play…

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.” Joseph Chilton Pearce

“Play has been man’s most useful preoccupation.” Frank Caplan

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.” Leo F. Buscaglia

“If animals play, this is because play is useful in the struggle for survival; because play practices and so perfects the skills needed in adult life.” Susanna Miller

“Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience.” Johan Huizinga

“Play is the exultation of the possible.” Martin Buber“

“Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” Mark Twain

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw

Yes and yes.  See, play is not just some trivial thing we do every once in a while to escape life for a while; play is vital to our daily life and to our overall physical and mental health.  Did you know that Google employees are encouraged to play during their work day?  This is apparently done to stimulate creativity and maintain a healthy mental state for the employees.

Big kids can play too.

Many people that work in the outdoors like myself often make comments like, “I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this right now,” with “this” being things like leading backpacking expeditions, facilitating rock climbing trips, kayaking, etc.  It is like we are so surprised sometimes that our work can also feel like play.

Let’s challenge ourselves, shall we?  Let’s consider accepting that it is okay to believe that play is important and needed in our daily lives.  How do you or would you like to incorporate play into your life?

Here is one idea for a play-date for couples: http://www.lifeadventurecenter.org/documents/CozyinourCanoeFlyer.pdf