Fun, I dare you.

Fun lurks in some unusual places. In the 'spilt milk' of life if you like. The best fun is actually the most unexpected. 

Like writing. 

I started pouring out my words because there were things inside desperate for a voice. Like my muted soul. It wasn't until the voice had words that I discovered something I might have otherwise missed.  This thing called words was fun. Sure my story was sad and the little girl that was me suffered, but fun was something I once grabbed onto and carefully stitched into every available moment. Like taking my mother's tin foil into the garden to make fairy swimming pools. If I knew how to do this thing called fun as a child, why did the adult in me think anything had to be so serious?

Fun started creeping back into moments that weren't really anything to laugh about. Like losing all my friends. But fun can be had in the dryness of long baked loneliness. Fun can be had even if you least expect it. In fact, it should be had if you least expect it. Some of my best fun has been had on my own. 

I started noticing the joy in being by myself. That I was pretty cool to hang out with. 

Fun can also be had in the thunderstorms of  togetherness. If you can make each other laugh, nothing is lost forever.

Here's the thing. Fun is something you have on the way to happy. It is something you have on the way to all your goals and dreams. It is not an end destination. It is a side road. A detour.  Because life is not an end destination. You never arrive. Even if you pen the most amazing book ever to be read by mankind, you have not arrived. Even if it is perfect. Even if Hemingway himself is rolling over in his grave bemoaning your greatness, you are not at the pinnacle of living. If you keep child like fun in your heart you will also maintain the innocence of learning right up until your last breath leaves you. Because that is what fun is. It is the perspective that life can be lived better if you find a way to smile, a way to grow and a way to stop being so damn serious. Fun is not at the bottom of life and it is not at the top. It is all the way up and down the ladder.

Nothing is the be all and end all. And I should know. I have been very close to the 'end all.' Fun is both the lift raft and the jumping castle. 

Our writing matters. We want it to be the best it can, but if it ceases to be fun I think we have lost the point. Being able to craft words into those magical things we call books is a gift, but we take ourselves too seriously if it stops being fun. 

Find fun in the cracks. In the darkness. In the waiting and the uncertainty. Because all life is uncertain. And I have always believed that a little crazy fun is the sanest thing to have.

Fun is a perspective, not a set of circumstances.

When faced with agents and editors at a recent conference I started to freak out. Until I remembered the fun. I got to meet with some amazing people. I got to pitch my book. I got to focus on nothing but writing and words for a whole glorious week. Now if that is not fun, I don't know what is. I sat opposite these 'gate keepers of the literary world' and thought... FUN!

Why not?

Ever heard the saying, 'Life's too short'?

It is not. Life is just long enough. It depend how you use it. I depends how much fun you plan on finding in all the moments that connect the dots of your life. 

So where ever you are on this writing journey. Where ever you are on this wild ride we call living, make some fun. Really. Rub two sticks together and see what happens. Sing in the rain. Dance on the doorstep of ruin. See how much fun can be had when everything around you says fun has left the building. I dare you. I triple dare you. Go throw some fun around. It's a fine day for living.

SO, What about you? Care to share some fun?

[The photo is of my three year old, Cyrus. He knows all about FUN]