In case you missed it, there was a minor snow event across the east coast and centered in the DC metro region this past weekend, and by minor snow event I mean a major blizzard that shut down the entire city on Saturday and Sunday.
You know an event is big when it spawns several nicknames including, but not limited to: Snowmageddon2, Snowlacaust, and Snowzilla.
Now to be fair, I’m from the Erie, Pennsylvania area…and if you are familiar with that area at all, you know that it is in a region called the snow belt. What we received in DC is absolutely significant, but it’s also nothing outside the norm of what I am used to seeing during my childhood.
I don’t know about you guys, but I was actually looking forward to the massive accumulations of snow. Now before you go and glare at me with murderous eyes, just hear me out. I find two key aspects of life that we often don’t make the time for: rest and play.
We’ve talked about the importance of rest off and on throughout this blog, yet it remains elusive to most of us with our hectic lifestyles. As one of my friends recently put it, there is nothing like a snowstorm to literally force the city to shut down and just rest. It’s kind of sad really.
Even more than rest however, snowstorms remind us of the lost art of play. It has always brought me joy to see kids out in the snow building snowmen, riding sleds, having snowball fights and having an all around good time in the snow. But playtime is not just limited to childhood, in fact, I would like to suggest that the art of playing is a crucial one throughout our lifetime.
Playing is what I would consider a form of active rest. Now, that may sound slightly contradictory, but what I mean is that it gives us a break from doing something else. Playing gives us a much needed break from our daily responsibilities, from the weights of the world that we carry on our shoulders day after day. When we play, we can forget about all these things and simply enjoy our existence in the world. It’s a chance to be silly – to not take ourselves quite so seriously.
While adulthood necessarily brings with it responsibility and duty, it is not have to take over our lives 100% of the time. Just like with our workouts, when we overdue it, we get burned out. Have you ever felt burned out from lift in general? Chances are, you could use some more time for play in your life.
As we continue to dig out from Blizzard Jonas, I hope you can make some time to find the kid in yourself and play. You’ll be doing yourself a favor mentally and physically.
Get Fit For It, Beth
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