I Forgot How to Have Fun

And my resilience suffered.

Here in Canada, we celebrate the first Monday in September as Labour Day, a day to remember all of the efforts of the people who have fought so hard for things like 5-day work weeks and 8-hour work days, overtime pay, paid holidays, and so many other things that are important to healthy, resilient people. What it often means in reality though, is that today is a last grasp of summer fun for many people.

School starts tomorrow and for many people (myself included) this is a return to the regular routines and rhythms that pattern our lives. Here in Canada especially, we start to move into our winter rhythms with shorter days and lots more cuddling in warm places. We savour our summer fun for as long as we can so that we can build our resilience towards the dark cold days ahead.

The idea of having fun, and of having not-so-serious things in our lives is something that often gets lost in the push to become more resilient and live more sustainable lives. I’m not talking about the fun things we do that make us more resilient. My wife loves to garden and to grow things, especially edible things that we can use in our kitchen. Yes, this is fun for her, and yes this makes us more resilient, but these aren’t the kind of things that I’m talking about.