When did we learn this?

Yesterday I was at a BBQ. They had one of this bouncy things you blow up and then jump around in. The children were having a great time. Two adults wanted to go jumping. They said they could get one of the children to go with them. I said just go jump, you don't need any child to go with you. It got me to wondering when at what age did we learn we could not "play?" I went in the jumpy thing. I flopped and fell and laughed. It was a lot of fun. Do we lose our "playtime" when we find out the truth about Santa Claus? Though if you ask me I'll tell you Santa is real. No, maybe not a physical man living in the North Pole. Santa is the spirit of the holiday. While the celebration is about the birth of Jesus, with the holiday becoming so commercial, I believe Santa is the embodiement of giving. I don't know about you but I still have butterflies on Christmas morning. I so enjoy it when I find the right gift for someone. My mother Christmas shopped all year. We would be in a store, she would see something she thought one of my sisters would just love, so she would buy it for Christmas. To me this is "Santa." didn't matter what month it was. To my Mom it was the pleasure of giving. She also opened every gift with wide eyed wonderment and joy! She held her inner child very close. She might not jump in a bouncer but she did not lose sight for having fun. Why do we do that? Believe me I know the weight of daily living can be heavy. Isn't that all the more reason to jump when we can? Do we need a child aged escort so we can let the child in us play? Maybe when we stop trick or treating we begin to shy away from swinging and skipping. Perhaps our rebellious teen years direct us towards "behaving grown-up." Seems a shame. Children laugh freely and often. My niece laughs the entire time she torches marshmallows at the campfire. It tickles her pink. Riding a rollercoaster is just fun. Paying a mortage does not mean you can't have fun. It is OK to buy toys, play Flip-n-frog, jump in a bouncer. Shoot it ought to be mandatory! Take off that tie, or those high heels and go to the swing set. Corporations should have playgrounds instead of fitness rooms. If we all laughed more we would be healthier and happier. Isn't laughter the best Medicine? I just don't remember when we became too old to have fun. What are we afraid of? Looking silly. Silly is all the stress lines across our face from lack of laugh lines. Your going to have wrinkles might as well be laugh lines. We played with sparklers last night. Sure we let the kids have some, most we sparkled ourselves. It was fun. Do you ever look in the toy aisle? Maybe there is a game you would like to play. You can have a young chaperon if you need one, or you could play with your friends it would be OK. Time is going to tick away, we are getting older, yet there remains a child in us willing to play hop scotch or hide-N-seek. Nothing wrong with that. Don't spend all your time being grown up. Take some of this precious lifetime to dance, skip, bounce in a bouncer, swing, go down a slide. I don't know when we learned we could no longer play: I do know it is not too late to play some more. Go ahead, play! See how great it feels to giggle-and simply forget all that grown up stuff. The grown up stuff won't go away-trust me it sticks like glue. For some reason though, after a few roller coaster rides the grown up stuff just does not feel that heavy.