ppendages i-vii, three threads

Enhancing Exercise #3:

I offer couples the three minute rule when working to understand a partner. In the event where one person completes something more quickly then the other, one partner deserves a little extra time to catch up. I randomly assign that length of time as three minutes. Given a certain time frame, minutes may collapse to seconds or expanded to days. The potential space in which the minutes occur allows us to feel the give and take of the play. Here we meet the possibility of what play accomplishes. Play makes connection with a partner sensitively. Try it.

So we can probably say that play comes more easily to some and that others have to push a bit more to get there. Actually it shows that we all can develop aspects of ourselves that lead us to be playful. Using our various processing skills creatively, we can develop new ways of playing. Each time we pursue a different channel toward playfulness, we expand empathy and alter past misunderstandings. The play makes up an antidote to the hurt.



To know how to engage others in play requires trust. It requires us to explore first impulses and to adjust them appropriately and sensitively based on the response of others. This energy give and take requires a leap of faith and we have to take on the role of the fool sometimes with a metaphorical step off the edge of the cliff. When we deeply trust the process we can be sensitive and reckless at the same time with humorous results.. This stepping of the cliff happens as we trust our creative impulse.