“Spontaneous dance parties are important in my life.”—Amy Poehler
Okay, so I should probably be writing my book.
But, NO!!! I’m taking this break to celebrate the dawn of Rhondafest. Seems I’m taking lots of celebration breaks this week. My power posse from Omega agreed during our Magic and Miracles weekend that we’d all dance together (wherever we happened to be) on the next full moon. That was Wednesday.
Today, Friday, is Rhonda’s birthday. I won’t say which number. That’s for her to reveal, if she so chooses. And since she reads Dr. Christiane Northrup, too, I’m guessing she agrees with me. Why bother?
Rhonda is my amazing friend, the one I’ve written about here on the blog and in my books. She’s the friend who vowed never to say no to fun. Maybe if there’s room (Who am I kidding? There’s always room on the internet) to repost my blog about her anti-Nancy Reagan campaign. Actually, she’s never mentioned Nancy Reagan, but if you remember, Nancy suggested just saying “no.” Rhonda always says ‘yes.” At least when there’s fun and joy involved.
She’s the friend who, last Friday, joined me in spontaneous celebration of the awesome Supreme Court decision to “Choose Love.” I felt so jubilant, so grateful that my country did the right thing that I had no choice but to go downtown (it’s a thing here in Lawrence) and whoop it up! At 10:30 in the morning. Most adults are working at that time and unwilling to just extemporaneously celebrate. I made a couple calls. Couldn’t find a taker. To be fair, one of my friends was undergoing hernia surgery which was a pretty solid excuse.
Then I called Rhonda. The party began. And this is even when she’s in the throes of launching her new feng shui business. She’s an interior designer, a pet sitter and now she’s starting–I think it’s called White Orchid Feng Shui. Although she might want to call it Fun Shui (it would fit her personality), I have no doubt it will be a smash hit. I might just hire her to Fun Shui the whole world.
Anyway, Rhonda is a wonderful listener, an inspiring, compassionate friend who offered to smash the knees of the person who dissed my Denver talk (yes, Rhonda was there and, no, she really didn’t–that was just my temporary insane fantasy) and did I mention, today is her birthday, yo!!!
Here’s the post (again!!!!
I have a couple groups here in my hometown who get together with the sole purpose of HAVING FUN. And therefore attracting MORE FUN. It’s a constant reminder of why we are here on planet earth. I walk out of those groups….no, I should say I dance out of those groups buzzing with joy and love and creative ideas.
Yesterday, one of our newest members told this story. A couple years ago she made a New Year’s resolution to “never say no to fun.” That meant if anyone asked her to go to a concert or go out dancing or out to lunch, she was committed to say “You betcha!”
She had begun to notice that she was turning down invitations because well, she’s a mom and she had a busy day or she was tired or…..you get the idea. There are a million rational reasons adults can give for declining an offer to enjoy themselves.
Kids, she noted, never turned down fun. They were in constant search of the next good time. Teenagers, too, would never spurn a party…no matter how late or how much they were going to piss off their parents by sneaking out the bedroom window.
It begs the question….when was the tipping point? At what point did we begin rejecting the chance for joy and glee?
What she discovered during her year of “just saying yes” is that the energy she thought she was going to conserve by staying home actually grew. The tired feeling that had previously impelled her to give the other answer completely disappeared.
And now, she says, “I don’t even have to think about it. I always say yes to fun.”
Happy birthday, dear Rhonda!! Can’t wait for tonight.
Pam Grout is the author of 17 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the recently-released sequel, E-Cubed, 9 More Experiments that Prove Mirth, Magic and Merriment is your Full-time Gig.
11 Responses
For some reason, I get an email/subject matter notice but nothing appears. Everything else is on the page but no message and I love your messages! Could you check and try again? This is the second time it’s happened. Thanks.
Honey Adelsheim hadel@verizon.net
HAPPY Birthday Rhonda Yes Girl! Have fun tonight dancing to the bright moon and celebrating your wonderful life!!!
Well, after a long night of babysitting a detoxing patient at work last night till 12:30 am, I awoke to this blog about having fun. So I stopped to think about it, (with the few brain cells that were alert at 8 am.). I think the last time I spontaneous said yes to a fun suggestion, really said yes, was in 1978 when I made a choice to stop drinking myself and stay sober and join the 12 step programs.. Did I just stop my life then? You raise excellent questions about the fun issue. Fun,…why not?
People in today’s new sobriety are much more upbeat especially around my club in Laguna Beach. There are always invitations to one event or another. I graciously decline usually, I just finished my doctorate and there is a comedown in energy from that, but I still don’t have real fun much. Hmmmmmm, as I sit here writing, I’m thinking about my kayak out on my carport gathering dust, The shrine walk out in Trabuco Canyon I love to hike, the celebrations people are starting to ramp up to having today. I work tonight and tomorrow. I really don’t like all the loud noises from firecrackers for sure, but am I going to be upbeat and have more fun? You Betcha! I’ll be open to the unlimited possibilities and invitations coming my way. Thanks for the ideas and happy birthday to Ronda, Yahooo!
Happy Birthday, Rhonda! And I love you without ever having met you. Thank you, Pam! 😉
Thanks for the lovely birthday wishes!!! Festivities are under way!!! Make today count & get out there & have some fun!!!
Not being happy is not being grateful for the blessings.
I love making up holidays for good causes! I also think that the day after Independence Day (July 5th – today!) should be Independence From All of The Negative Thoughts in My Head Day! And I have declared it such. The mascot is the silver lining around the cloud. My friends and I always remind ourselves to focus on the silver linings instead of the dark grey parts of the cloud. Enough silver linings make for something even cooler than a sunny sky. Thanks for all the great posts!
Alexa
Alexa Fitzpatrick filmmaker * writer * comedian 323.839.7723 alexa.fitzpatrick@gmail.com http://www.alexafitzpatrick.com
Hi Pam!
Today, I wanted to ask you a question. I hope that within your busy schedule, you will have some time to respond, because I would love to hear your opinion.
The past couple of days, I have had experienced situations where, I would send someone an email at the very exact same that he/she sent an email to me, on the exact same content that I sent them. Or, I also experienced my friend pressing “like” on Instagram at the exact same time that I pressed “like” on their post.
So, my question to you is; do you think that there is something to this kind of synchronicity??
Thank you for reading this, and I hope that I hear from you soon:)
Thank you always for your inspirational perspective.
Love this clip of the Black Eyed Peas and Oprah!! Thank you Pam!!
Happy Birthday Rhonda, thank you for showing us how to say YES to fun!!!
XXO Sarah
Since I read E-Squared a few years ago I’ve told everyone about you and your books. I downloaded E-Cubed onto my Kindle and completely forgot about it. I found it and finished it recently and just LOVE the way you write so I ordered ALL the books you’ve written from a used book store and started getting your email and FB posts! I had lots of cool stuff happen during the experiments this time as well but what I really want is a friend like Rhonda. Or any friend really! Since I moved to this State/town in 2006 I’ve met lots of acquaintances but no one I can call or hang out with! I’m hoping with all the inner work I’ve been doing the Universe is finding the perfect friend for me! Before I seemed to attract people with just as many or more problems and hang ups than I had!
Also, I’ve been wanting to tell you that I read your “Jumpstart Your Metabolism” book and am doing the exercises in it and LOVE them! I am on a diet group on FB and 2 people posted studies showing we literally exhale fat! That’s how we lose it! Not sure if you’ve seen them? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30494009
http://www.sciencealert.com/this-is-where-body-fat-ends-up-when-you-lose-weight