Work hard...play hardly?

A month or so ago I helped a friend out with a project for a program is she working on. I had to describe to her on paper my eating habits and we had a discussion on the different things going on in my life and how the two related. The overall lesson was how what you eat feeds your moods and decisions in life. While she was asking me questions about what was going on in my life that was good, I began to describe how happy I was with work and how I could see my future with the company finally coming to shape. I went on for a good 5-10 minutes about work and thought I was completely giving the most awesome answer I could and how no one could top how great my life was going.

The she said "What about play? You aren't talking much about how you play."

I was taken aback. Here I thought my life was going well and then I was smacked with an obvious omission from my life. I don't play much and the rest of our session was about how to balance that out. It's something that's been in the back of my mind since. Yes, I have time off and I do things that I enjoy. I go shopping with my mom on the Fridays I get off and I take the dog to the park with my hubs on the Sundays I  don't work, but I never just PLAY. Like run around the park barefoot after a picnic or take off for a day trip with no agenda in mind. I used to do these kinds of things. And it bums me out that we don't do them anymore. We used to just call up friends and day drink at the local brewery or take off in the car just to see if we could really make it all the way to Lexington without a map or using the interstate. Now a good play day is making time between dishes and sleep to watch tv or throw the dog her ball.

I've decided that if I am going to really live well I need more play. I love my job and I love where it's taking me, but what's the point of all of these healthy choices if I'm not going to use them. I don't want to be the old lady that didn't take advantage of not having kids and sat around watching HGTV the whole time. I want to be the awesome old lady who still listens to punk music and wears Chucks cause she can. That kind of old lady would have taken advantage of every opportunity to play she had. 

So who wants to come and play with me?