Over the holidays, I received a very interesting tutorial from Spirit in the form of a New Year’s Eve game of Scrabble. Instead of strategizing and studiously mulling over possible letter combinations and words, I found myself just being present, doing nothing in particular. As if by magic, letters began to form themselves into words that I would effortlessly place on the board. My partner could barely finish her turn before I had a new word ready to go. This continued throughout the game, and I ended up with the highest score I had ever made (hers not far behind). But it wasn’t really about winning; it was about playing. The entire experience was almost surreal—I felt as if Scrabble was being played through me, and I was just the vehicle to allow the playing. Thus, the larger life lesson: When you let go and stop trying so hard, life flows through you. And everything becomes more play-full.

Effort, trying, has always been my approach to the world (I was born pushing hard to emerge from the womb, breaking my mother’s tailbone in the process). Only recently have I learned to slow down, breathe, and allow my life to be lived through me instead of trying to plan every single event and experience in my reality. It’s not as if I’ve never lived spontaneously—I was, after all, a flower child in the 1960s! Nonetheless, there has always been some part of me that believed that living life meant working hard to make it happen (write down a list of those intentions, and act on them—now!). Really, the greater truth is that life is meant to be played. And playing is the opposite of work. It’s being, letting go and flowing with the energies. Of course, that flow comes from an open heart, unblocked emotions, and trust in something greater than your individual life.

All part of human evolution at this time. As babies, we were easily playful, but we lose it within a social construct that demands serious effort from us at an early age. Now, as that old paradigm starts to disintegrate, we are beginning to reacquaint ourselves with that wise child within, that soul self more aware of what’s really important in life. Our soul knows that, first and foremost, we are here to love (the world and life itself), and that everything is a vehicle for that—a way to reach greater and greater levels of loving and harmony with our fellow beings. How do we do that? Play. Allow life to play with you. Let it be an adventure and a game, one that you are not here to win but just to play—with everyone in your life. Play it forward!