Fun is in the air because it's summer! It's been so beautiful outside, in spite of the tornado-warning conditions, how can we not want to go out and have some fun in the sun?
Weyburn's main objective this past week has been to have fun. So far, we have enjoyed the Canada Day celebrations, the Weyburn Fair and the Parade. On July 1, my family spent many hours at the Weyburn Leisure Centre. I think everybody was there, or at least it seemed that every family in Weyburn had sent a representative to the outdoor swimming pool. It had been 22 years since I'd run around like a little kid, swimming like a fish and enjoying time with friends in the water. I even went down the water slide fifteen times! My husband went a few times, too, but we couldn't get our son Artan up there even once. He may be a Pisces fish, but in actuality, he's more of a chicken. The ironic thing is that he doesn't even eat chicken!
I found the whole day quite liberating, since I had decided that I could be free to run around the pool un-self-consciously for the first time in more than two decades. For all those years, I let my own insecurities completely ruin my fun, at any and all swimming, hot-tubbing or river-tubing opportunities. I may have joined in and seemed to be having fun, but I was inhibited because I actually cared what people thought of my physical form of presence. If only I had realized how little thought people really do put into nit-picking others' appearances. We are far more critical of ourselves than anybody else is, ever. If you're criticizing others, you're really standing in judgment of yourself. It is truly liberating to decide not to let the illusion of appearances fool us.
Okay, so maybe my chest ended up matching the Canada flag by the end of the afternoon. I didn't care, because I usually turn brown the next day, thanks to genetics and a good slathering of hemp oil and aloe.
One of our Finney family traditions is to head out to the Bukowski farm at Cedoux for a Canada Day feast. That crew - which also includes a myriad of honourary family members - really knows how to have fun!
Throughout my whole life, I have always been surrounded by fun-loving people. My dad's side, as I mentioned, has a bunch of grown-up children who play harder than most actual kids. When I was younger, my dad and his brothers would always have some kind of nerf gun combat or other annoying boy toy during family functions. Until very recently, I didn't get it. The fun they had had as kids continued well into their adulthood, through parenthood and now, into grandparenthood.
Just like with my experience at the pool on Sunday, the sentiment I have come to grasp is: we are never too old to have fun.
My sense of humour has kept me safe from psychological temptations to be depressed, bored or hopeless. My Grandma Vi taught me, in no uncertain terms, to laugh whenever possible. I am a natural-born imp, indeed, but there have been times when I let my moods get the best of me. I allowed many a potentially fun time pass me by because I'd forgotten to make having fun a priority. Fortunately for moody people like myself, humour makes it easy to bounce back from a dark place.
My favourite people of all time are comedians. To me, if you're funny, you're all right.
As long as no particular person is being ridiculed or harassed without their permission (trust me, some people love the attention, good or bad), I think inside jokes and ongoing pranks can be a great source of joy for individuals, families, groups and teams. At least, it would seem so, with those Finneys and Bukowskis. Although pranks can get pretty expensive in my family, the stories that have been created could fill a book or two.
Being fun-loving may not come naturally to everyone, but it is a skill worth cultivating. Boredom is a four-letter word in my house. If you're not having fun, you're not playing enough. If you don't see the humour, you're not looking hard enough. But it's summer, so seek and you shall find!
