Lately I’ve been feeling like maybe life itself is really just a game. Every game there are rules on how it is “supposed” to be played. I’m not sure who makes up these rules and I’m certainly not sure what I’m suppose to win out of it or even who I’m playing against?!
I got my niece Hannah the game “connect 4″ for Christmas. She’s 7yrs old and had never played it. I showed her how to play and of course she was easy to beat. I would at times prolong the game by not winning right away so she could learn it.
Fast forward to present times, two months after she first started playing, she’s able to beat pretty much anyone she goes up against! :fishwack: She plays my mom daily and I often hear my mom say how she loses to Hannah 4 out of 5 games. I just laugh and figure my mom wasn’t very good. It wasn’t until I went over for a visit and played Hannah at connect 4 that I realized just how good she has gotten!
I don’t know if it’s her height, being closer to the grid or her quick moves or even her dancing when it’s my turn that’s helping her win. The girl dances and makes funny poses when it’s my turn, probably to distract me. :eyebrow: It’s so funny and it makes me laugh so hard. Before I know it, she’s set up several traps for my game pieces to fall victim to. I must’ve played her like 12 times so far and have only won once! She’s so darn cute though, I can’t help but laugh at even her comment to me after one of my losses, “so, how’s it feel to lose to a 7yr old?” :blink:
So what IS her secret to winning that game? Distraction? Quick thinking? Her confidence that she’ll win? Practicing everyday? Having fun? Sheer happiness? What’s her secret and how can I translate that to the real life game that I’m living in these days?
Last summer or maybe it was two summers ago, we were spending time together. Somewhere she wrote down the secret to happiness for me. I often in a teasing fashion ask her adult type questions to see what she’ll say. It’s amazing to me what comes out of her mouth, I think she’s got an old wise soul inside that little body. I can’t remember all three things and the piece of paper is around here somewhere I’m sure. What I do remember was her saying how I needed to sing and draw everyday.
It seems so simple…basically do the things that I really enjoy. Maybe that’s the way to win at this game of life.
At times I’m not sure if the game I’m in is any fun at all….and if it’s not, why do I continue to play it? I started thinking about it more today as I was buying my tax preparation software from the store. Tax season again….why do we have to pay taxes anyway? Why do we have to account for every single dollar we make? I mean, who really cares what I make or what my neighbor makes or the guy down the street makes?
That’s really when it hit me on how life is really like a game that we ALL play. Filing taxes is part of the rules of this game. We choose to live here where we have to pay income taxes, that’s part of the regional rule of this game. Then it just snowballed from there…laws. Are laws there to help or hinder us? In a way I can see both sides of that argument which I won’t get into here. In fact, I’m having one of those “I can see both sides of an issue” kind of day. Nothing seems to be one-sided and I’m not quite sure that’s at all comforting.
All I know is that I go through life in a half programmed way on how we’re all “suppose” to live. I follow the street driving laws for some safety for all sort of thing. I go to the store and push my cart around because that’s what it’s there for. I stand in line waiting to checkout. What if I don’t want to pay the sales tax today? Maybe I don’t want to hurry up because the store is closing in 5 minutes? Turn signals….blah! Ok, I am pretty notorious with not signaling on lane changes because to me, I’m not making a turn. What if I don’t feel like going 80mph with some guy tailgating me to go faster?
If life is a game, who the heck am I playing against? And why do I feel like at times I’m not living (playing) the best that I could or “should”? If my game nature is to play until I am good at it and can win more times than not, why do I feel at times so much dissatisfaction with the way my life is going or the way I’m living it?
Have I been programmed by the “rule makers” that I’m “suppose” to be a certain way and live in accordance with some idealistic standard for all to achieve? My life certainly isn’t cookie cutter and I can’t imagine nor have imagined it to be that way. Maybe I was never confident that I could win at the game in that particular way, therefore I don’t.
Then there was a moment where I thought, perhaps a breakthrough….maybe the only person I should be playing against is just myself, there shouldn’t be any other opponents because it IS MY game of life. Instead of living how others think life is suppose to go, maybe I’m already playing an already great game of my own with whatever I’ve been dealt. As much as I don’t care if someone pays their taxes or signals when they make a turn, somehow, somewhere inside, I’ve compared my life with some sort of made up “ideal life” we all supposedly are striving for.
If it’s my game, why aren’t I making the rules? And if I’m making the rules, then all things should be going my way because I’m the boss!!! And if I’m the boss of me, then I should be living a life that makes me happy. Maybe singing and drawing everyday is the key to happiness. Maybe sleeping til noon IS my way. Maybe staying up late IS my nature. Maybe painting my murals here and there IS how my life is suppose to go. Maybe stopping at the flower station at the store just to smell the roses IS perfectly fine cuz I’m the boss and I rule my world! 
Maybe the way to win is to laugh and dance to distract whomever I’m playing against, even if it’s myself. And if I beat another person at some game, if I’m so darn cute like my niece Hannah, 
they can’t possibly be mad at me nor should I be mad at myself for living the way that I do. I’ve always thought she was a smart one! :luv:
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