Life is a Playground

We watched Yes Man last night with Jim Carrey. I thought it was going to be Liar Liar re-done a decade later, but was pleasantly surprised by a hint of depth in the story (such as it was - the fact that it took 3 writers to create that mess gives me hope for selling my screenplay one day!). Zooey Deschanel, who always makes me think of that scene in Elf where she sings 'Baby It's Cold Outside' in the shower, told Jim Carrey at one point, "Life is a playground." That line jumped out at me and gave me something to take away from the movie and consider.

Deschanel's character was a fledgling musician who ran an early morning photography/jogging class and wasn't particularly good at anything she did, but she felt life was to be enjoyed and experienced, not for success but for pleasure. This idea struck me as particularly profound, since it rubs against the grain of my Type A, results-driven personality. It's a constant struggle for me to stop what I'm doing, look around, relax and enjoy myself. I want to play more, laugh more, and find more joy in the process instead of the result.

Kids are good teachers for this. They always live in the moment. They don't plan ahead and worry about tomorrow, for they are focused on today. I'm trying to adapt more of this spirit. All we have is today. Each moment we are in is a gift (that's why it's called the present - that little gem comes from Kung Fu Panda) and to fully enjoy it we must fight to stay in the moment. The rest is only the rest, and comes after.

I always want more time: to live, to write, to grow. But the only guarantee I have is this moment in this day. Life is a playground, and I want to play. I want to participate fully in my own life. I have so many stories brewing in my mind that I want to capture, and there are only so many hours in each day. I need to remind myself that we grow over a lifetime - patience is required and the realization that I can only do so much in any given timeframe.

I must believe that I have a lifetime to accomplish my dreams and transfer my ideas to the page. Rome wasn't built in a day. Pacing is important. I know, somewhere deep inside, that if I don't learn this now, I won't appreciate the end result of my dreams coming true because I will only be looking to the next thing and not appreciating the moment my dream has been realized.

On an unrelated note, a few of you have contacted me through e-mail or Facebook to say you've tried to comment on the blog and haven't been able to. In order to comment, you do need to create a Google account which requires your e-mail address, a password and a user name that you decide on (if your preferred user name is taken it will tell you and you can keep trying other options).

There is no way to comment anonymously on Blogger, but you can make your user name anything you want if you prefer to remain anonymous. I love to hear from all of you and promise to interact with your comments to keep a dialogue going with my readers. I thank you again for your support for my writing. From the bottom of my heart I am grateful for each and every one of you who is reading.