Kittens!

Two of Batty's brood, ten days old.

Play!

My good friend Therese Borchard at Beyond Blue has been urging me for some time to do a blog piece on the benefits of play. Her piece today, Do Something You Love, serves as a timely reminder why I need to get crackin'. Therese writes:

Last summer, when I was going through a bout of depression, a friend told me to do what made me happy as a kid. So I tuned up my mountain bike and headed to the trails for a few hours. Afterward I treated myself to an ice-cream cone: mint-chocolate chip with LOTS of chocolate sprinkles on top. That was exactly how I spent so many summer days as kid.

My brain recalled it, because I could hear a voice say, "Oh yeah. I remember this. It was fun ... before your dad put you on treadmill and a diet and you were afraid to eat ice-cream again."

What happens to us when we get older? Are we programmed to actually forget how to be happy?

Remember what it was like when you were five? When you and your friends had that feeling of never wanting to stop? Until your moms called you in for dinner?

Why can't we bring back some of that?

Trust me, I will be writing an awful lot on this. Play is a vital element in our recovery. So much so, I contend, that if you are not spending at least part of your time acting like a child then getting through adulthood is going to pose a major challenge.

In the meantime, in case you have forgotten what play is like, here is a video from my two resident experts, Rocky and Bullwinkle at age six weeks. Enjoy ...