I hope you had a fun Easter! Please do tell us all about it here, if you’d like to. Despite the weekend’s burst of spring having regressed now back to grey, I am holding onto that feeling of rejuvenation. My playful spirit has been adequately stirred up by games, laughs and fooling about outdoors and I can’t help but notice a spring to my step as I head ‘back to work’. A good bit of fun, I believe, can blast out the cobwebs and give us a fresher, more positive way forward. As Mary Poppins said ‘In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun, just find the fun and snap the job is done!’.
Of course fun has the power to propel us forward. Just as in Mary Poppins we watch the game of ‘a job well begun is half done’ – the children are encouraged to approach the task of tidying the nursery with a different point of view. When the children make a game of the job, the fun makes the work fly by, it is easier, lighter, as if by magic. For this very reason I like to listen to music like Rhythm Tree by Baka Beyond when I am doing house work or even making important plans.
More to fun
Somewhere along a sunlit trail, as I helped my excited son hunt for eggs, I realised that fun is the magic stuff that makes a child’s world magical. Just look at a child as they play – their eyes are bright and wide with wonderment; as they run and skip they seem to gasp at the joy of the moment – literally living it, breathing it. It’s contagious you know! Hand in hand I hurried along that path with my son, giggling and buzzing with glee I remembered how everything looks through the eyes of a child. From the perception of fun and games, foil wrapped eggs are super shiny, colours are bolder, the sky is brighter, the world around you bigger and grander and an exploration waiting to happen. I don’t want to forget this view on life. If it changes our perception in a literal sense then what of the problems we face? What happens to fear?
Laugh it off
We watched a film, over the weekend, called ‘the Rise of the Guardians’. The message of the film really spoke to me. I will never grow tired of speaking out against this habitual tendency us grown ups have – to approach matters with a frowny face and a sombre, serious disposition. It doesn’t do us any good; if anything I think we can quite easily frighten ourselves into not getting anywhere. When we lighten up, we’re less bogged down, less fearful! Anyway, this film agrees with me, so there! It reminds us of the ability that fun and joy have to dissolve and starve the moloch of fear that overshadows us all from time to time (especially if we believe all the rot that is published in the newspapers).
‘My Neighbor Totoro’ is another film I’ve watched recently that reflects the beauty of the lighter – using laughter as a means to chase away the shadows of fear. The encouragement of joy and laughter that runs through children’s films and stories is amplified by the naturally joyful ways of shamans throughout the world cultures. Lao Tzu wrote ‘without the laugh, there is no Tao’ and Rumi ‘within tears, find hidden laughter’. So it’s a good idea, I think, to get out there – meet with friends, explore the great out doors, get silly once in a while, whistle while we work and laugh away the fear that would like to hold us back.
Books with humour
Cygnus Books have a whole host of books with strong spiritual messages lightened with humour and spiced up with character. I’ve listed some books that’ll make you smile, at the bottom and sides of this email. It’s always good to have more so visit our category page on humour and tell us your recommended favourite! We’ll send you a £5 voucher if we choose it for inclusion in the magazine 🙂 I wish you very happy reading!
One love,