Provo, UT

How long has it been since you took the time to just lay in the grass or roll down a grassy hill? Unless you can say “Yesterday” or “Last week,” your answer probably translates into this: “Too long.”

What happened? Did you forget the simple pleasure of getting close to the earth? Touching and smelling it? Getting it on your hands and knees and into your soul? Did you forget how to play with abandon, like a child? Did you somehow learn that life is serious and adults shouldn’t play and grass stains are more trouble than they’re worth?

Never fear, it’s never too late to make a course correction. Especially when it’s as easy as rolling down a grassy hill then laying on your back, staring up at the sky, and breathing it all in. Even a few minutes can transform your entire afternoon. Maybe more. This could be what you remember most from this entire season.

I’ve already heard this from one person this year. A client in my energy work practice has spent her life in tremendous service - adopting several children and caring for them and her husband in many admirable ways. The one thing she forgot was to treat herself with the same care. After our initial session, things began to change dramatically. She began taking time for herself without feeling guilty. She would go to a nearby park and read for an hour or two if she felt like it. When she lay in the grass, she couldn’t remember the last time she had done so and it became a symbol of her newfound freedom and balance.

These photos are of my nephew. He was having so much fun rolling down a grassy hill that I couldn’t stop laughing as I followed him around with my camera. I was dressed up for family photo and didn’t get down and roll around with him and the other kids who soon got into the act, but just watching was enough to make me feel pretty good.

The Provo area is full of perfect venues for grass laying or rolling. Perhaps your own back yard offers sunshine or shade spread across your lawn. Or be bold and lay down in your front yard! Your neighbors could use the good example!

Be grateful that you live in Utah where we don’t have chiggers or biting ants or other vermin which ruin the fun of having a lawn in other areas.

Most schools and parks have plenty of lawn just waiting for you to sprawl out on it. Some, like Cascade (200 N 800 E Orem) or Sharon Elementaries (400 E 500 N Orem), have nice hills where you can try to get dizzy by rolling down.

If you’re too shy at first, you can start under cover of darkness when no one can see you. It’s nice, you’ll discover - or remember, to just lie there and stare up at the stars for a long, long, long time. Don’t rush it. Relax. Breathe. Release all that pent-up pressure and stress and seriousness that has somehow sneaked into your life somewhere since you were a child who knew better than to believe in all those things.