Soul-searching is a good and valid endeavor, but so is lightening up. In honor of my birthday month, I’m giving myself new challenge—a mini-Camino—to practice taking myself less seriously.

Day 1-8: Click here to read

Day 9-16: Click to read here

With a two-day migraine and two dads in the hospital, it was doubly difficult to focus on the goal of lightness. Week Three gets an A for effort.

Day 17: Remind myself what I have to be grateful for. I’m going to write this one out, rather than just think it.

Gratitude is serious business for me. Not content with trite, superficial “thankful fors” I take gratitude head on—or rather heart on—in deep contemplation. Though writing the list is heavy, I discovered I feel remarkably light after.

Lightness score: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Day 18: Play with animals. Get down on the floor and roll around with them and have fun.

Pepper and Jasper could not have been more shocked when I got out the feather toy and started running around the house with it. We played until Jasper flopped over, exhausted. I loved playing with them!

Lightness score: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Day 19: Intentionally dress to not match. In public.

I wore a red turtleneck sweater and a flowing, full-length purple velvet skirt with striped socks and no one died. Mary came home from work and said, “That’s what you consider not matching?” I might have to do this again and risk bigger.  🙂

Lightness score: ❤ ❤ ❤

Day 20: Finger paint, so much finger paint. Make a mess!

This one has backstory: three Valentine’s Days ago, I bought a canvas, acrylic paints, great brushes, and then … nothing happened. I intended to paint something for Mary. Because of this day’s intention, in under an hour I had a painting I loved. It’s not finished yet, but I definitely got paint all over me.

Lightness score: ❤ ❤ ❤

Day 21: Sing at the top of your lungs to girl power music and dance like a maniac. Really let loose.

Enter Gaga and Swift: there was singing, butt shaking, and fists in the air. Mary walked by in the middle of this and we had a good laugh.

Then I got a migraine. Hmm.

Lightness score: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Day 22: Meditate on the word tranquila and use it for a mantra for a day.

Instead of thinking it, I lived it. I slept late and lazed around recovering from the banner headache.

Lightness score: I call a do-over.

Day 23: As a way to create more love and gratitude in my life, talk to things as I interact with them. Like as I’m making my bed, thank it for keeping me warm and being so pretty. Feel silly and do it anyway.

I grinned as I talked appreciatively to the truck, my laptop, the refrigerator. I also got to hold my baby friend who’s 14 days old and we had a playful chat about life. I loved it!

Lightness score: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Stay tuned for updates on the next week’s not-serious activities—there’s one week (and change) left in my month of less-seriousness and more lightness!