BLOG 167—As I Get Older, I Think Younger

With my words, I hope to throw some oblique light upon your life.
I want to inspire you to see life in a different and/or better way.

*** Remember, to read past blog posts, go to >> kitsummers.com/blog/

*** If you are reading this through Facebook, check out my blog on my website.

*** If you are not my Facebook friend, yet, please, befriend me.

*** The happiness I am experiencing in my life is a marvelous thing!

*** Going where I want, when I want, and seeing wonderful places and people, too. (But no longer alone, Beth is by my side.)

*** I will have places to show you and tales to tell.

*** Secrets to unfold and good news!

*** I want to thank my wonderful wife Beth for her superb editing and adding to the blog each week.

BE TAKEN AWAY WITH ME
ON WONDERFUL ADVENTURES!

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INTRO TO THIS WEEK >>

Don’t be so seriness!

RETURN
Bring back the playfulness of your younger life. Your young, curious, playful, loving person is still there. I am now 63, but feel like I am still in my early twenties.

CHILD?
There is a child in you, find it, bring it back. Sometimes, people forget to enjoy the younger, playful, curious, lighthearted side of life. Reconnecting with your inner child means bringing back play and fun and taking life a little less seriously. It means allowing yourself time to play, be curious, explore, laugh, and see the world with both joy and awe.

PLAY!
As I often say, “Don’t turn into an “adult”. Adult responsibilities, like paying the bills or running errands, can make you take life too seriously sometimes. Everyone needs to change their thinking every once and a while.
Dance with friends.
Juggle for the fun of it.
Run around in a field.
Have a water balloon fight.
Have a good laugh.
When you approach life with a playful attitude, everyday situations become exciting, entertaining, and fun!

ADVANCEMENT
Even when you deal with sticky situations, like when you are at work or during social interactions, you can use playfulness to resolve the tension and relax others. This free-spirited, lighthearted nature gives you a more positive outlook so you can cope with life in positive, healthy ways. As a group, you will achieve more!

HAVE
A funner time in life.
More love in your life.
Improved work and academic performance.
Increased creativity and motivation.
People who remain playful and young at heart actually live longer!

HONESTY
As you express yourself more openly and honestly, your life can change. Children seem to fearlessly express themselves by dancing, laughing, and playing—you can, too! When we are young we certainly know how to tell it like it is, too, and sometimes our younger selves are brutally honest, as you will be!

OLDER?
As you grow older, your change as societal norms tends to influence your behaviors. You may become more serious, scared, or shy and find it hard to express yourself. You may speak out less, perhaps out of fear of rejection, as people “turn” into an adult.

PLAY!
Your authentic self deserves to sparkle! When you hold back on expressing your true feelings, you miss out on valuable time and connections, and experiences. Bring back the play, and channel your inner child again by learning to smile as you communicate openly and honestly.

UNIQUE
Not everyone may agree with and like what you have to say, and that’s okay! When you express yourself, you offer your unique position to the world and ultimately attract people that genuinely like you.

CHILDREN
Spend time with children!
There is no better way to bring out your inner child than to spend more time with kids. Whether you are goofing off, telling jokes, running around, or playing games – make time to spend with kids and that will help tap into your inner playfulness and youthful expression.

GIVE
This is not one-sided. You also get to share your own skills and knowledge to help young ones discover and learn and grow. If you don’t have children, you might spend time with the children of your friends or relatives.

LEARN
Adults tend to focus on problem-solving and getting things done. Children live with an openness to learn and explore the world with all of its possibilities. You can connect to your inner child by letting go of the need to fix and control all the time. Instead, keep an open mind and see the learning opportunities around you each day.

TUNNEL?
At times, people see life with tunnel vision, looking down at their phone screens or rushing to the next meeting. Take a moment to pause and look down at flowers growing, up at the sky, into the forest. The sun, the clouds, the moon, and the stars will remind you to pause once and in a while, to appreciate your surroundings like a child.

CREATIVENESS
Kids love to learn through play, arts and crafts, movement, coloring, singing, and many other ways. You can bring out your inner child, too, through creative activity—and get lots of bonus health benefits, besides. Artistic self-expression helps you cope with trauma, manage emotions, and promote overall well-being.

HEAL
You can change! Heal the wounded inner child within you. Much of your personality and habits develop during early stages of life. As you get older, you may continue to act out patterns learned from childhood without realizing it, that’s a good thing.

PRETEND
Close your eyes and picture yourself as a small child again. What would you say to that person to comfort them? You can even write a letter to guide your inner child. This practice will help heal wounds from the past. This will develop self-compassion and build love. You’ll have an easier time forgiving yourself for mistakes you hold onto when you see yourself as that innocent child.

ADULT-NESS
Actual adulthood means nurturing and listening to that inner child. It means to listen to the pains of your past, then how to respond to those needs, and heal. When you reconnect with your inner child, you become more aware of the current motivations behind your behaviors, emotions, and relationships.

PLAY!
As you would know, play is an important part of childhood, it’s a critical component of adulthood as well! The brilliance of the play is that it has profound benefits for all ages. Babies and young children investigate their own little world and learn new things about their life through play. Preschool-age and older children can practice life skills and develop their bodies, minds, and social skills through play. Continuing through adolescence and adulthood, play contributes to being a well-rounded, creative, and joyful person.

TIME
Even though you are busy with everyday responsibilities and schedules, it is important for you to carve out time for leisure — if not daily, then at least throughout the week and month. This is a key to get more out of life. Play gifts people to be flexible thinkers, creative, young-at-heart, and free-spirited. It provides an opportunity for pure pleasure and doesn’t need structure. Play is free-flowing fun that can unleash our imagination.

PLAN
Play often happens spontaneously, planning time for play ensures that you have fun. All of us need time to unwind from our tight schedules and hectic lives. Sometimes just observing children at play and listening to their self-talk or conversations with their playmates can transport us into their imaginative world, and along with that, cause us to stop and enjoy the moment.

HAPPY!
Develop a happy, joyful, positive attitude, full of gratitude for even the smallest, everyday things. Plan to make play a part of every day, whether it is indoor or outdoor, solo or social, active or quiet—make it happen often.

THIS >>
Smile and laugh often throughout your day.
Try new things and experience the unexpected.
Use the unscheduled time to smile, be creative, daydream, reflect and decompress.
Appreciate playtime – whether it’s alone or with other adults or children.
Sing and dance just for the fun of it!

LIFE IS HAPPENING ALL THE TIME – ARE YOU KEEPING UP?

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WORDS TO INSPIRE YOU! >>

Inspirational quotes and motivational sayings have an amazing ability to change the way we feel about life and can change our thinking.

This is why I find them so interesting, challenging, and important on our path to joy and happiness and finding ways to inspire ourselves as well as others.

Inspirational quotes and ideas provide us with a quick and timely burst of wisdom to get our focus back, offering the inspiration needed for the day or occasion.

I hope to inspire you with my words.

Words have power.

At any age, you can (and should) make changes to make your life better.

You see, the way you think and feel about yourself, including your beliefs and expectations about what is possible for you, determines everything that happens in your life. It all derives from your quality of thinking.

When you improve the quality of your thinking,
you change the quality of your life—sometimes instantly!

Just as positive words can make someone smile, and/or, a well-timed amusing quote can make someone laugh, your own thoughts react to the world in real-time. You have this control!

In fact, you have complete control over only one thing in the universe — Your Thinking — and that’s where motivational quotes come in!

To keep your motivation, you have to use each day as an opportunity for improvement, to be better, to get a little bit closer to your goals. It might sound like a lot of work—and with your busy schedule—next to impossible. But you can do it!

Self-talk is so important—THINK RIGHT!

Motivational words, yes, they’re just words.

But they’re positive words; they will keep you on track.
Remember, you are only as young as the last time you changed your mind.

Keep your thoughts and self-talk fun and productive and always reaching for advancement.

VERY LITTLE IS NEEDED TO MAKE A GREAT LIFE.
I HOPE THE FOLLOWING WORDS INSPIRE YOU >>

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Quotes of PLAY >>

Self-discipline is necessary, but so is playfulness, flexibility, and joy. When you stop demanding perfection of yourself, your writing desk will become a spacious place.
Karen Russell

There often seems to be a playfulness to wise people, as if either their equanimity has as its source this playfulness or the playfulness flows from equanimity; and they can persuade other people who are in a state of agitation to calm down and smile.
Edward Hoagland

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
Dale Carnegie

Why not make cheerfulness, outrageousness, and playfulness a new priority for yourself? Make feeling good your expectation. You don’t have to have a reason to feel good – you’re alive – you can feel good for no reason at all!
Tony Robbins

We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.
Charles E. Schaefer

The moment you start seeing life as non-serious, a playfulness, all the burden on your heart disappears. All the fear of death, of life, of love – everything disappears.
Rajneesh

The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen, the feeling that whatever happens, it’s okay… you’re either free to play, or you’re not.
John Cleese

See if you can approach your own practice with a healthy combination of mindfulness, playfulness, precision, and curiosity.
Cyndi Lee

Organize your reality according to your strength; organize your reality according to your playfulness; according to your dreams; according to your joy; according to your hopes – and then you can help those who organize their reality according to their fears.
Seth

There’s a certain pleasure in the life of the mind that cannot be denied. There’s a certain pleasure about being around people who enact a playfulness when it comes to the world of ideas.
Cornel West

Many teachers think of children as immature adults. It might lead to better and more ‘respectful’ teaching if we thought of adults as atrophied children.
Keith Johnstone

The true characteristics of the epistolary style is playfulness and urbanity.
Joseph Joubert

Trust allows you to give, Giving is abundant.
Trust allows the experience of bliss. Bliss is wakefulness.
Trust allows you to laugh. Laugh at the richness, the beauty, and the playfulness of the universe.
Apply consciousness to this process and all roads will lead to home.
Gary Zukav

I think there’s a playfulness and a distance to Kavalier and Clay that I don’t aspire to in my stuff. Maybe I’m more old-fashioned, and less of a fabulist, in that way.
Jim Shepard

Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time… Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

COMPOSE A NOBLE BOOK AND WRITE A BEST-SELLER.
YOU ARE AMAZING—PLAY YOUR PART!

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MY DAILY JOTTINGS >>

4/16-18—Make each day unique, that is what I aim for in my life, and I hope you have seen that through my blog posts.

Living about a four-hour drive from where we live, we went to visit Beth’s parents for the Easter holiday. On a nice drive up, we went through much wilderness—trees, foliage, forests, and greenery. Ron is 84 and Joyce is 82, great to get to know them better.

Along with Beth’s parents, her three sisters, Barbara, Patti and Krisi, showed up, too, with their own families. Nice to get to know her family better.

4/19—We are acquiring animals, as you know, and Beth decided to find and collect very small snails, all from the backyard forest. We have them in a clear container with plants and rocks to help them think it is all-natural.

In fact, eggs were laid and baby snails are making their appearance. We will keep them as we enjoy them, then back to the forest with all.

4/20—Out driving for a time, we came upon “The Dented Can” store. We were both amazed at the low prices they charge. We will be returning. Do you always shop at the same place? Have a look around, perhaps you can places with lower prices.

See >>
https://www.facebook.com/Dented-Deals-Discount-Grocery-555241687918088/
Food at fantastic prices.
We bought a lot and will return.

Like many people, we are stocking up on all the food necessities. We are hearing from many sources, that with all the changes in the world right now, it might start to get hard to get food in the future. That is also the main reason I am building our above-ground gardens.

Our four gardens did not cost much, at all. It might be a good idea for you to grow your own veggies and fruits. I built them out of free pallets, and here is how I did it >>

Most pallets are four feet long and have a row of boards on the main side, support boards on the inside, and three two-by-fours holding them together.

Measure down 22 inches and cut the pallet, and all boards, then do the same thing on the other side. Do this with six pallets. Once you have all cut, screw two together using 3” screws.

Keep screwing sides together, two on each side, and one between (see the photos.) By cutting them at 22 inches, there are two support boards so that they stay solid.

To keep the dirt in the garden, I had some plastic that covered our windows, to keep the cold out (we are getting new windows, soon.) I used this plastic, cut it to size, and stapled on each side of the garden to keep the dirt in. Finally, you screw pallet boards around the top for additional support, and you can sit on this, too.

Contact me if you need more info.

4/21—The rabbits are growing here. Today we picked up another bunny hutch. This one is two-story and quite large (no elevator, though, there’s a ramp.) In fact, we have a big walk-in hutch, the new one would not fit into the walk-in hutch.

At this point, we have five rabbits. You know how they can multiply? Hmm, how about you, want a bunny? They are very cute and fun to play with. I’m sure you want one, yes?

Also, we found a farm store, The Peach Stand, and I let Beth know that, in the past, when strawberries are in season, I have used them to make my fresh and tasty salsa. Have you seen >> summerssalsa.com?

With our fireplace, I am often making fires for our heat. The house is on electric heat, which is expensive now, so I like to heat with wood. We had been having the firewood delivered. We recently found Mike and Nadine, who have much wood on their land and gave us wood for a much better price than where we were getting it.

4/22—Being strawberry season, we went to a place where Beth has gotten large and pretty fruit. We bought many berries, in that Beth will be freezing a large number of them.

Take a look >> https://www.exploreedgefield.com/place/cooks-farm-roadside-stand

YOUR CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK >>
Make laughter and play an essential an part of your life this week (and always.)

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NEXT BLOG >>
In driving to Abbyville today, we drove through much forest land, some of which is national forest. We will be checking maps, and, perhaps, going there this upcoming week. I will let you know.

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THIS WEEK, MAKE YOUR LIFE SOMETHING
THAT YOU CAN WRITE ABOUT!