Playing Pretend

I’ve been thinking a lot about playing pretend.

Typically we think of playing pretend as something children do that we grow out of as adults.

I don’t think that’s true though. I think we just learn to play pretend differently.

We play pretend that happiness can be found outside of ourselves. Happiness is difficult to find inside of ourselves. But it is impossible to find happiness outside of ourselves.

We also play pretend that we are the way we are and the world is the way it is and both are unchangeable. But we and the world are more fragile and chaotic than the story we tell ourselves.

The great thing about playing pretend is that we can always reimagine the story.

Just for a moment, can you play pretend that you are wonderful just the way you are? That you don’t need to change a thing. That you are not an uninvited guest on this earth. That you have a purpose on this earth and that purpose is to breathe and experience everything and to love and be loved. Can you play pretend for just a few minutes?