What about you?

Years ago, I visited San Francisco with a medical student friend of mine. We were staying with another medical student, Danny, a friend of my friend. Danny was in his mid twenties, and he was dying of cancer. He was expected to live another six months or so. Danny was still ambulatory and took us various places in his car. One time he was having difficulty finding a place to park in a full parking lot. Danny saw a space in the parking row in front of us. He also saw another car aiming for the same slot.

Rather than waiting for another spot to open, Danny said, “I’m getting that spot.” He sped up and almost jumped in front of the other car, beating him to the parking spot. The other driver almost hit us and was angry. Danny rolled down his window, gave the other driver the finger, and yelled, “I’m dying of cancer and can whatever I want to do. F-you!” Then he turned to me and my friend and said, “Wow, that was fun! I’m going to do more of this as long as I can!”

When my brother was dying from cancer and had only five or six months to live, he got in my car one day and was smoking a cigarette, one of the causes of his cancer. I questioned him about why he would be doing this since it was obviously not good for him and could hasten his death. He said, “I’m dying from cancer, and these can’t hurt me anymore. Why shouldn’t I have some fun?”

Fun. Both of these men talked about having fun because they were dying. Why shouldn’t they have fun? After all, they only had a short time left on this earth. Why not go out in a blaze of fun, if not glory? My question is why did they wait until they were dying to have fun? And why did the fun they allowed themselves to have be destructive and mean-spirited?

In March of this year, I posted one of my Three or Under videos where I talked about fun and being sure we put it on our schedule every day. I know many of you didn’t see the video, so I am reposting it below. I’m bringing this up again because our world continues to exert pressure on us, and it is important that we take care of ourselves. One of the best ways I know to relax, feel lighter, and release stress is to have fun.

Fun means different things to people. Some people play sports or card games while other people play with crafts, music, gardening, or art projects. Some people like to watch television and movies. For some people, fun involves others such as spouses, children, neighbors, or grandchildren. Other people enjoy their fun in solitude. None of these matter. What does matter is us making fun a priority in our lives. Your business, family, or job won’t fall apart because you clock out of the daily routine to have some fun.

We don’t have to wait for a cancer diagnosis or other calamity to befall us before we give ourselves permission to have fun. Go ahead and do it now. Fun energizes you and those around you. Let some in your life and see what happens.

Here’s the brief video I made about this topic in case you want to see it.

Living in grace and ease,

Krysta