Collect $200

Categories: Uncategorized Apr 13, 2014

Before Atari, there was Monopoly. Do you remember that game? It was a great game to play with your family and friends; especially on a rainy day. I always wanted to be the little sports car, and I don't know too many people who actively chose the thimble. Anyway, as great a game as Monopoly was, there was one part I hated about it: Going to Jail. "Do not pass 'Go'. Do not collect $200!" It wasn't the fact that I couldn't collect the $200 dollars that bothered me, it was the fact that I had to sit there and lose a turn.

I didn't like losing a turn. I wanted to play. Even in Monopoly, going to jail, being confined to motionlessness, was torture. It was only a board game, but it was still torture. Why? 'Cause we were made to move, made to play, made to be "in the game." If you tell a 7 year old they can not have recess, or they cannot play with the other children, you can literally watch them go crazy. An inner turmoil springs up out of them and they lose control of their emotions. Their heart actually aches to play and move.

Somehow, as adults, we have either accidentally, or purposefully, put ourselves in "Time out", in jail. We have somehow managed to kill our heart and quiet our emotional need to move and play. For many of us now, sitting in jail, and watching other people play Monopoly is no longer a problem. The tortured 7 year old is now the apathetic, heart broken, adult.

Pay attention: There is a child inside of you waiting to get his turn to roll the dice. He is still in there wanting to go out and play. There is a life, and light, deep inside of all of us yearning to be released through movement, through play, through engaging. We weren't meant to be still or to isolate ourselves, often voluntarily, in confinement. Solitary confinement is a form of punishment and torture. Yet, many adults willingly torture themselves daily - only they don't know it because the "child" inside became heart broken years and years ago.

The good news is that hearts can be mended, movement can be restored, and life can be lived. All of us were meant to participate, to "play", in life. Watching it go by is torture; it breaks the spirit. Do you suffer from apathy? Lethargy? Fatigue? Stiffness? Are you full of "use to's", "want to's", "wish I could's?" Get up! Get moving. Take your $50, pay the banker, get out of Jail, and roll the dice. Get back into the game!

There really is a 7 year old inside of you who wants to be released so he can run and play, laugh and giggle. He was never meant to be placed in the corner and left for adulthood (dead).
Now is the time. Spring is here - new life, new beginnings are here. Go for a walk. Go to the park. Find some monkey bars. Find joy. Find energy. Find life.

Otis Redding has it all wrong. Sitting in the dock of the bay, watching the tide roll away and waisting time is death. It is not life. You were made for life. Now is the time. Do pass 'Go.' Do collect your $200 and do live your life like a child would. You were always meant to live this way. You can do this. You have to. Life is so much more than sitting in timeout. Go play.

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