{"id":4829,"date":"2014-07-24T23:08:09","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T05:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=4829"},"modified":"2014-07-24T23:08:33","modified_gmt":"2014-07-25T05:08:33","slug":"we-dont-stop-playing-because-we-grow-old-we-grow-old-because-we-stop-playing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/we-dont-stop-playing-because-we-grow-old-we-grow-old-because-we-stop-playing\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe don`t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe don\u2019t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.\u201d<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 -George Bernard Shaw<\/span><\/p>\n

There has to be truth to that.\u00a0 \u00a0I really believe that if we can find a way to stay young at heart that it will affect our physical age.\u00a0 I can\u2019t prove its true, but I do believe it\u2019s true.\u00a0 Adults who laugh a lot look younger to me. \u00a0\u00a0Their wrinkles don\u2019t look like wrinkles; they look like merry smile lines.\u00a0 Adults who don\u2019t laugh much and always have a sour look on their face seem old and wrinkly.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also noticed that adults who go out and play with the kids rather than sitting on the sidelines look younger to me.\u00a0 And adults who still enjoy a hamburger happy meal at McDonalds because it comes with a free toy\u2026well, it always makes you feel younger inside, which is why it\u2019s one of my favorite meals!<\/p>\n

I think summer is the perfect time of year to allow yourself to feel like a kid again.\u00a0 Be excited to go run through the sprinklers, enjoy sitting on the grass sucking on a Popsicle, be happy just to play in the sunshine.\u00a0 Put your stress aside and see the good in everything around you.\u00a0 Be happy.\u00a0 \u00a0Laugh.\u00a0 Play.<\/p>\n

A few years ago someone sent me a copy of a really cute letter that I want to share:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8-year-old again.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to go to McDonald\u2019s and think that it\u2019s a four star restaurant.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make ripples with rocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer day.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to return to a time when life was simple.<\/span><\/p>\n

When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn\u2019t bother you, because you didn\u2019t know what you didn\u2019t know and you didn\u2019t care.<\/span><\/p>\n

All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.<\/p>\n

I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good.<\/p>\n

I want to believe that anything is possible.<\/p>\n

I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.<\/p>\n

I want to live simple again.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones.<\/p>\n

I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.<\/p>\n

So\u2026here\u2019s my checkbook and my car keys, my credit cards and all my responsibility.<\/p>\n

I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this further, you\u2019ll have to catch me first, \u2019cause,<\/p>\n

\u201cTag! You\u2019re it.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0– Unknown<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s challenge – BE YOUNG AGAIN!\u00a0 Be EXCITED!\u00a0 Laugh out loud\u2026a lot!\u00a0 Play games and enjoy them.\u00a0 Remember all the things that made you smile when you were a kid and smile about them again.\u00a0 Me, well I plan to go and get me a Hamburger Happy Meal at\u00a0<\/span>McDonald’s\u2026I hear they have awesome toys!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

~Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe don\u2019t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.\u201d\u00a0 -George Bernard Shaw There has to be truth to that.\u00a0 \u00a0I really believe that if we can find a way to stay young at heart that it will affect our physical age.\u00a0 I can\u2019t prove its true, but I do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3403,4615,174,4627,368,4622,4625,240,4624,2928,1605,1318,606,4220,4616,55,180,3725,1547,181,4621,1894,574,821,1918,4619,1291,129,4618,4620,804,608,4613,4626,4617,191,4623,173,541,4614,543],"class_list":["post-4829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adult","tag-adults","tag-anxiety","tag-be-younge","tag-believe","tag-belive","tag-checkbook","tag-children","tag-credit-card","tag-excited","tag-games","tag-george-bernard-shaw","tag-good","tag-grow-old","tag-hamburger","tag-happiness","tag-happy","tag-happy-meal","tag-honest","tag-laugh","tag-mm","tag-mcdonalds","tag-money","tag-play","tag-playing","tag-popsicle","tag-resign","tag-responsibility","tag-sprinklers","tag-stressa","tag-summer","tag-sunshine","tag-tag","tag-tag-youre-it","tag-toy","tag-toys","tag-worried","tag-worry","tag-young","tag-young-at-heart","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4829"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4831,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions\/4831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}