Have fun in life. Is that so hard to do? To have more fun in life, you just have to take life less seriously.
If living your life is the most serious thing you know, how can living life be fun for you and for the others around you?
The fun I speak of is not entertainment. I don't mean to say that to have fun you have to go to fairs and on rides. You don't have to be on the town in order to have fun.
I mean to say that whatever you are doing, have fun while you are at it. Do the dishes and have fun. Why not enjoy the sound of the water running and the suds bubbling and then rinsing the suds off the dishes now washed? Why not even enjoy a splash of sudsy water that spills onto the floor? What is so important about being serious? What good does it do? Have a good time even wiping up the spill. Are you not privileged with the opportunity to bend down? Isn't it an amazing thing how your legs and arms work with such agility? Let your perceptive mind work with such agility too.
I am talking of you right now and how you approach your life. When it comes to other people, yes, of course, give respect to their seriousness. When your child takes his stuffed toy seriously, of course, you have to too. What is important to others is not to be taken lightly. It is not a joke to them.
But in your dealing with the events of your life, find the joy. If you cannot find the whole joy, then find a particle of joy. Laugh at yourself when you take life so seriously. And don't you? Haven't you taken every tremble of every leaf on the tree of your life seriously? Have you not even panicked?
I say it time and time again. You have an inner core of solidity that does not get shaken by the vicissitudes of life. All the winds that blow do not have to shake you. It is not a requirement of life that you be rattled. You have choices. You can look from a different angle. Your feelings, beloved, do not always seem like choices to you, yet it is your choice as to how you will perceive and how you will act. Feelings themselves are an action. You have a certain sphere of influence over your life. You can be more than a mass of automatic responses. Even in sadness, you can find joy. Even in pain, you can find your sense of humor. Even when you feel bleak, you can brighten someone else's life. You have some leeway here. You can walk down a different lane from the one you have been walking on. Choose to be good-natured.
Outer-directed, you are at the mercy of life. Inner-directed, you are your own director, and the character you play can have a certain joyful vitality in life, a certain bounce, a certain leaping up to catch a red rose and other gifts from the Universe.
Perhaps you were taught that life is a most serious venture. Don't even take having fun seriously. Just make room for fun. Have the idea that life is fun, and that your life can be fun. Invite this kind of ambience into your view of life. Lay down the red carpet for fun. It is possible for you to enjoy life. You can do it. Let go of somber seriousness. Let it go. Become light-hearted.