29. Have so much fun!

and... joy is a resistance!

Today is my half birthday! I’m 40 1/2 and I’m still making my way through this list! ah! I hope I finish before 41! Friends, I’ve been a bit quiet on this platform. I last wrote at the end of January as I headed out for the annual women’s retreat. It was right after the inauguration and the world began to change - It changed hard. It changed fast. It changed unbelievably. My heart was breaking on the daily. Executive order after executive order… Orders that told my friends they weren’t whole people. Orders that told me I wasn’t a whole person - as a woman, as a Latina, as the daughter of a refugee. My silence on here I think is just because my energy has been focused on processing the world, parenting and diving deep into the work of ministry because that feels like a concrete way I can push against what is happening in the world. I think I’ve also just been processing.

You might be wondering about the title of this blog post—Have So Much Fun!—and why I opened by talking about how the world feels like it’s changing, even crumbling, and how hard it’s been lately. I promise there’s a connection. So here goes…

“Have so much fun!” was one of the original items on my list of 40 things. It’s something I used to say to my oldest when he was a baby. As I headed to work and left him with caregivers, I’d often call out, “Have so much fun!” One day, a caregiver said to me, “I love that you say that—have SO much fun!” I hadn’t even realized how often I said it, but in hindsight, it feels like a bit of a life motto. Why not have so much fun?

I want to tell you also that the women’s retreat this year was deeply moving, deeply healing and it deeply filled my heart with an energy to fight the fights we were (and are) going to fight! As we got to the closing worship of the weekend, about 8 - 10 women got up and shared a poem about the deep power of women and what we bring to the world. I felt this deep-in-the-depths-of-my-soul sense of power, worth and community connection. I knew this was going to be the deepest form of resistance I could do! Love myself and love my community! As part of the worship, we lifted prayers, and one of these amazing women shouted “JOY IS A RESISTANCE!”.

Have so much fun - it’s not about toxic positivity, it’s not a sugar coating of life, and it’s not about the inability to take things seriously. Certainly seriousness, depth, hardship, disappointments, these are all things that are ok to make room for. And… I think that my stance on ‘fun’, is that it’s a mindset, it’s up to you. No one else gets to dictate if you’re having fun. Someone could have set up a super fun event, but if you are in a bad mood or you just don’t want to have fun, chances are, you won’t. And… I think as we get older, we and the world around us tends to get more serious. Maybe we even feel like we don’t have time to have fun! So, I think a lesson I’ve learned is that it is important to have fun…. to choose to have fun! It’s important and ok to enjoy things! To laugh! To delight! It’s important! It’s important to be silly and goofy, or do something just because you like it! Imagine that…. doing something just because it’s FUN and not worrying about whether it produces something! I sometimes think letting ourselves have fun can take courage. For some of us, it can take courage to let ourselves be a little goofy or silly. We might have to risk what people might think of us…. or our fear of what people might think of us. But, I think it’s worth the risk!

And, as my friend on our women’s retreat reminded us, not only is fun important for our mental health or for just the enjoyment of life… but FUN and JOY are a form of resistance! Choosing joy doesn’t mean ignoring the pain or pretending things are fine. It means refusing to let despair have the final word. It means making space for laughter, delight, play, and wonder—even when things are hard. Maybe especially when things are hard.

Joy reconnects us to our humanity. It reminds us what we’re fighting for. And when we laugh, create, dance, sing, or simply savor a moment of beauty, we push back against the forces that try to diminish us. Right now it can really feel like there might not be much we can do, but isn’t it amazing that just living from a sense of fun, joy and delight can be a deep act of resistance. When we don’t give our power to others, and we can hold to our own sense of self, we resist!

So… have so much fun! Do it because it’s fun and it’s good for your mental health. But also, I invite you to have fun and do the things that bring you joy—as a way to resist, to reclaim your power, and to stay rooted in what makes you fully alive. Having fun and doing things that bring you joy doesn’t mean ignoring the hard stuff. It means daring to delight anyway.

Reflection Questions:

• What brings you joy?

• What are the barriers for you to do things that you find fun or joyful? Can you remove those barriers?

• Can you commit to doing 1 - 3 fun things a week?

• When’s the last time you had a dance party for no reason!? ;-)

Songs:

Reap That Joy by Rend Collective - I’m living for their new folk music album! I think there’s something playful, delightful and fun about this song. And… it has depth. It acknowledges the hardships and names that joy will come!

Joy by Rend Collective - This is the song I first wanted to link, but as I looked for it, found the new one above. I just love how this upbeat song makes dancing possible and invites us to jump for joy! “Joy will re-ignite us” it says! So even when times are tough, joy is in our hearts!

Joyful by Dante Bowe - “this is the day that the Lord has made!” “I’m gonna be joyful!”. Just a super uplifting song that sets my heart towards joy!

Good Day for a Good Day by Michael Franti & Spearhead - this is just a positive and uplifting song that puts me in a good mood. It’s on a playlist I have for myself called “starting the day off right!”.

Click HERE to go to the 40 Things, 40 Years Playlist featuring the songs from each blog post.

here are some pictures from the women’s retreat!