The Power of Fun

A rainy day — unexpected in California.

We loaded up our many cans and bottles and drove them to the recycling center in the parking lot of Target. We arrived efficiently, prepared to do this quickly.

No one was there.

We stood in the gray pause of it — that moment when plans dissolve and you realize you are stuck between what you expected and what is actually happening.

The rain clouds thickened.

Two young children.

No snacks.

No backup plan.

We decided to wait.

And so we improvised.

Fake Ball

This is a game I call Fake Ball.

The rules are simple:

You have the ball. No one else knows what kind of ball it is except by how you handle it. You serve it — dramatically, subtly, fiercely, gently — and the other person must catch it.

The twist?

The ball can change mid-air.

Maybe it started as a baseball and becomes a beach ball halfway there. Maybe it shrinks. Maybe it grows. Maybe it curves unexpectedly.

The other person can catch it however they see it coming — not necessarily how you meant to throw it.

And sometimes… they miss it.

(If you are me, you accompany the miss with a highly convincing “Oh no! I totally missed that!” face.)

We played Fake Ball for over an hour in a rainy Target parking lot.

No equipment.

No cost.

No screen.

No complaint.

Just imagination and laughter echoing off wet asphalt.

The Secret

You can make anything fun.

Fun is not the setting.

It is not the weather.

It is not the efficiency of the recycling center.

Fun is a decision.

It is a willingness to say:

Well, this is what we have. Let’s play with it.

The rain did not change.

The delay did not change.

But the atmosphere did.

And now, when I think of that rainy parking lot, I do not remember inconvenience.

I remember joy.

I remember the way their shoulders relaxed when they realized we weren’t rushing.

I remember laughing harder than the situation deserved.

I remember thinking: This might be one of my favorite memories.

I hope it is one of theirs too.

What Fake Ball Taught Me

Fake Ball is more than a game.

It is marriage.

It is parenting.

It is friendship.

We are constantly throwing each other balls — expectations, moods, invitations, disappointments.

Sometimes they change mid-air.

Sometimes we misread the throw.

Sometimes we drop it.

But we can always choose to pick it back up and play again.

And sometimes the best memories are built in the spaces where nothing went according to plan.

🌱 Good Beet Reflection

1. Where have I been waiting for conditions to improve before allowing joy?

2. What is one inconvenient moment this week that I could turn into “Fake Ball”?

3. Who in my life needs me to lighten the throw — or laugh at the miss?

4. When was the last time I let imagination interrupt efficiency?

The Good Beet does not grow because the weather cooperates. It grows because it finds joy in the soil it is given.

Even if that soil is a wet parking lot behind Target. 💛