Be Real Magazine

new! Events Calendar Oct \| Nov \| Dec Jan \| Feb \| Mar Apr \| May \| Jun List Your Event! in issue eleven Scintillations Playing Boggle Seduction in the Snow Curious Rain The Opposite of Peas Playing in the Vertical World Bring on Broadway (Parents) Snorkeling Past Fear You Won't Get Far In Those Shoes Legos Freedom From Five Feet Chasing Shadows Mozzarella No More! Letters FROM My Younger Self Moody Girl photography & artwork Dandelion, Elm, & Firefly Faeries Dog Wearing A Cone Apples Sun Petals & Sprawling Daisy Poppy Field workshops Play With Your Words Writing Workshop Making Friends With Money what you say about Be Real contributors Do You Want To Contribute To Be Real Magazine? take me back To The Cover To The Contents Page in every issue What Do You Think? Subscribe To Be Real future issues Issue 12: Synchronicity Issue 13: Danger Issue 14: Home Issue 15: Transitions previous issues	Julie Russell Anything can be play, anything can be a game. Play isn't so much what I do, but how I do it. Play is making a game out of anything I'm doing - whether it's washing the dishes with lots of extra soap bubbles or pretending I'm an explorer when I'm cleaning out the garage. Play is about making anything fresh, new, and interesting. Play is about getting so absorbed in the activity, that the outside world disappears. In creating this issue of Be Real I've given lots of serious thought to play, only to realize that serious thought doesn't work well where play is concerned. It's not about analyzing play, about planning to play, or about assessing how well I've played after the fact. When I've felt like I was really playing, it came more in spontaneous moments than in pre-planned events. Add spontaneity and a touch of childlike glee and even work becomes play. Conversely, I can take any activity - even painting - so seriously that I judge and criticize all the fun out of it. Play is definitely about forgetting that I'm doing anything but the task at hand. Once, I was invited to play touch Nerf football with a bunch of twenty-something guys on my project team. I'd never played football, aside from tossing one back and forth on occasion, but threw myself into the game completely. I even launched a pass that lead to a touchdown for my team. I was not only in the game, I was the game. There was no thinking involved. Play seldom, if ever, involves thinking. Expectations also get in the way of playing. I do something once, feel like I'm good at it, then the expectation monster comes grumbling and stomping his way in, saying I should be able to do it well again and again. "Go away!" I tell him. He grumbles louder, stomp-stomp-stomping his way to my desk. "GO AWAY, I MEAN IT!" Grumblegrumblegrumble. I respond, "Grumble all you want. I'm not even going to look at you. I'm going to make a really bad painting on purpose." Then, I ignore him. Poof! He vanishes into thin air. Then, I'm on my playground again, swinging to dizzying heights of new adventures. Playing is about doing. It's not about thinking, analyzing, or judging. It's all about action. But right now my cat's playing with the string for the mini-blinds, and I'm going to swing it more to see if she can catch it. Well, we did it again, for the eleventh time, at the eleventh hour. We have lots of great articles, photos, and artwork in this issue for you, so without further ado, I'll just say thanks to everyone who helped make this issue possible, and leave it at that! all the best, Julie Russell Publisher Be Real Magazine



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