The Playful Heart: Letting Go, Hanging On, and Laughing Anyway

We don’t need to escape life to find heaven—we just need to loosen our grip on how it should be and open up to how it is. That’s what the playful heart knows.

I had a moment riding my 1200cc motorcycle through heavy rain, slippery roads, and wind blowing hard off the river. Helmet fogged up, traffic everywhere… and I asked myself, What would a playful heart do? (see The Playful Heart).

So I cracked my visor, let the rain slap my face, and screamed “Yeahhh! Here we go!” into the storm. Because if we’re going down, we might as well go down smiling.

That’s the invitation. Not to fake joy or skip the hard stuff—but to let go in the middle of it. To pause, breathe, and soften enough to choose how we show up.

Whether it’s a disagreement at home, a childhood crash on a gravel back lane in Winnipeg, or the vulnerability of joining a band without asking permission—there’s power in presence, in breath, and in being willing to look silly, be wrong, or miss a note.

It turns out:

• You can’t go from pain to play without first finding safety.

• You can’t create joy without letting go.

• You can’t drum in a band—or in life—if you need to control every beat.

And guess what? Jesus knew this too. “Unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Not because we need to regress, but because childlike wonder, curiosity, and play are gateways to God.

Just for today, let go of needing to be right. Open your heart to the messiness. Take a deep breath. And if the moment calls for it… scream into the wind and ride like love’s got you.

Because it does. 💖

This reflection is inspired by the message shared in “The Playful Heart,” delivered in Vancouver, BC, on October 30, 2024.

#RevvedUpRev #PlayfulHeart #UnityCanada #SpiritualJoy #LetGoAndLive #DrumYourTruth #MotorcycleMeditations #LiveFromTheHeart