Never stop playing
June 12 is Brazilian Valentine's day, so since this is Valentine's week I couldn't think of a better theme for the #coilgratitudechallenge other than how grateful I am for my husband David who supports me in every single thing I decide to do.
I've learned so many wonderful things from him but I'm especially grateful for how he taught me to never, ever stop playing! Life can be so hard at times, we all go through difficulties but paying attention to the simple things around us (that despite being simple can be so special and fun), allowing ourselves to be silly, laugh a lot and not being afraid of playing is so important for our wellbeing!
He always finds a way to add a fun spin to things, like when I'm making muffins and he comes into the kitchen and asks if he can stick a whole bonbon inside the muffin before I bake them:
Why use a grocery cart when you can skateboard?
And having a frisbee handy is always a good idea.
Sometimes it's hard to describe what we mean with words and sometimes it's very hard to chose one single memory to describe people and things that make our lives special, so I decided to make a video with some fun moments we shared together, where we play, laugh and enjoy the things we love. Some of those moments were just a few seconds from a given day, but they sure made that day special.
The video starts with an old, kind of blurry picture from when we met in 1999 and goes through some memories from all the seasons.
Winter is our favorite season. I grew up in Brazil and the first time I saw snow was when I was 34! I still find snow so incredibly magical and thanks to David's patience, I learned to snowboard and can now enjoy being on the mountain with him on beautiful snow days. He needed a whole LOT of patience to turn this tropical human into a snow lover and I am forever grateful for all the countless hours he had to spend showing me I could do it!
Running is another activity we enjoy doing together and we always run at the same pace, we don't use headphones and enjoy talking while we run. Fun fact: we participated twice in a race where the couples had to run in opposite directions and then combine both finishing times for scoring. Both times we finished the race within seconds from each other despite running separate and in opposite directions. I guess we were meant to run together :–)
How about you, are you keeping your inner child alive and remembering to play, laugh and do things that make you happy?
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=339078897209443433
Music: Tum tum pá pá by my cousin João Mar.
I should also mention that not everything he tried to teach me went smoothly. He tried to teach me to surf and I was willing to try. Looked pretty comfortable sitting on the board waiting for that perfect wave:
Had some fun paddling over baby waves:
But soon discovered that surfing looks much easier than it really is:
