Play, Work, Rest

This past weekend our campus hosted the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Regional Assembly. Close to 250 members of local Disciples churches joined for a day of workshops, connection, and meetings. There were yard games, inflatable bouncy houses, an ice cream social, and much more. This was my first time participating, and it was a truly celebratory event. 

Towards the end of Saturday, I decided to quickly run home and pick up my six-year-old son. I knew that he would love to jump around in one of the bouncy houses as many of the participants were leaving the event. When we got back to campus, he had the place to himself. At first, he sat on the edge somewhat timid. He told me he just wanted to look around and get used to things. Then he walked on it and told me how weird it felt to walk on it. Finally, he jumped nonstop, as if he was the Energizer Bunny. Within minutes, he was hysterically laughing with every jump.

As the day came to a close, and with his energy level decreasing from so much jumping, he helped me clean up the yard games around the Dell. His first task was to clean up all the bean bags used for cornhole. He quickly brought them to me in a large pile. When I turned to look at what he was cleaning up next, I could no longer see him.

As I scanned the Dell, I finally found him lying under a tree, eyes closed, legs crossed, with hands resting on his stomach, looking so content. 

I yelled over to ask what he was doing. He didn’t respond. “Are you sleeping?” I said. No response. “Are you resting?” No response “Are you meditating?” No response. As I walked over to him, he finally turned his head towards me, opened his eyes, gave me a wink, and went back to his content position, while I did the rest of the cleaning up. 

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about how my son got to play, did some work, and finally had a rest. Play. Work. Rest. Seems like a pretty healthy model for life and something I hope we all experience this summer. 

May you have moments where you get to play so hard you laugh, smile, and collapse from so much fun. 

May you have moments where you work with such vigor you complete your goals, succeed in your plan, and leave your job feeling accomplished.

And, may you find moments to put everything aside, be present to the moment before you fully relax,  rest, and get recharged to play and work again.