p.10 My play journey has been a long and sometimes painful climb, but always with a joyful outcome. Come with me while we look at how others have played, stopped playing, started again, and the miracles that are happening in their new playful lives.

p.15 Play is something that gives life a sharper focus.

p.16 Ovid once said " in our play we reveal what kind of person we really are."

p.16-17 I have observed that there is great mental concentration, to the exclusion of thinking about anything else in our lives, when we play appropriately.

p.20 My admired friend Alan Cohen once pronounced in one of his workshops that "we should live life with so much joy that when we die we will not notice it." It is my motto for life.

p.20 We need to play because it makes all the difference in our health, wealth and joy.

p.29 When we truly give our attention to our "Heart Play" we will begin to see the skills and talents we have in that area.

p.30 Understanding how we played as children and what we liked and didn't like are a big part of bringing back play into our adult lives.

p.31 Curiosity, larger-than-life, explorations are the basics of much of our childhood play.

p.32 Sometimes childhood comes right along with us into adulthood and that is not necessarily bad.

p.34 We may need to give ourselves permission to play again; free from criticism, so we know what play feels like in a positive way.

p.46 One of the things we have to examine very carefully as careers, marriage and children fill our lives is whether we keep honoring the play that we need in our lives.

p.49 Men are excellent at integrating work and play.

p.50 Men have shown through their stories that they are players, all the time. Always were and always will be.

p.51 Men like to wake up on Saturday and play. Sure they know the lawn needs to be mowed and they may even do it before they play, but then they play.

p.55 What is the secret here? Men are staying and enjoying their work as they go into their forties and fifties because they have play in their lives.

p.57 Possibly we have a whole new field of endeavors in finding ways to continue our high school sports into our adult lives. Men have been doing this for years.

p.58 Most men are very good at play.

p.60 As we have discussed before there is the sense of "free play" when we watch children. When a young child is brought into a room, or a forest clearing, their eyes light upon something and off they go to explore. It may hold their interest or it may not. When it does not, they simply cast it aside and move on to the next thing. They do not feel committed to what they started and will not continue to play with it if it does not satisfy their hearts. Children have very little to go by in this life so they go by their instinct or what feels good to them. They follow their hearts endlessly. They make no judgements about what feels good or bad, they just feel those things and move on or stay, as it feels best.

p.61 Like a child we must look at this world as one huge toy store, sand box, open field.

p.65 Our romance with play wanes as we age, and I mean age as being over 21.

p.70 Play allows us to feel curious.

p.74 We can imagine all sorts of things when we play

p.78 One of the first things you get to do when you are finding your "Heart Play" is to rediscover how truly wonderful and unique you really are.

p.82 Finding your "Heart Play" can actually take years.

p.108 Play is a mysterious and exciting adventure for the heart... finding your "Heart Play" is like every journey in that we make some wrong turns, some long turns, and have to travel through some not-so-great things to get to better things.

p.113 Learn to think of whatever you choose for play as valuable... If you find how you are spending your play time as valuable to you, then that is all that matters.

p.114 So when are we going to find time to play?

p.115 I am suggesting that you figure out what you are doing and why and then find a way to make it fun or quit it!

p.126 Resistance to play comes in many ways, shapes and forms.

p.130 Do not resist the urge to play at anything that feels like play to you.

p.139 Let yourself "play" with everything that comes up that you do not like and make it into something you can either live with or, better yet, actually like. Life is too short.

p.141 I have seen women dancing again after years of holding still. When they dance they are at play, their heart flying along with their feet.

p.142 A playful life has a million other blessings that you will find along your journey.