It turns out that play and gratitude are linked. Mary Beth Sammons, coauthor of The Grateful Life, recalls how she struggled as her father and mother passed away—not quickly—but over six long years of illness and multiple hospitalizations. At the same time, she was also helping to raise her three-year- old granddaughter. She unexpectedly discovered that playing with the toddler opened the door to healing gratitude. “Play opened the path from brokenness to the search for light in every corner of every moment I was experiencing,” she remembers. “It helped me tap into a new level of consciousness. Play unplugged my fear, letting me shed tears of sorrow and joy, and gave me hope and reverence for the precious moments spent at my parents’ sides.”
From “Grateful” by Diana Butler Bass – HarperOne