Okay, this may sound a little asinine and forgive me if it does. But… I learn the greatest things from playing Candy Crush Jelly. Believe me, I know that you may be like, “WTF does this have to do with enlightenment?” Well, it does. Go with me.
I’ve played the game for, I don’t know, the past 2 years or so. I got it mostly because I’ve been going through a huge transition in my life and I desperately needed the distraction. There’s only so much a girl can take, and my mind has been so full trying to get myself back on track after a devastating blow to my life and my self-esteem that I needed to keep my mind from imploding on itself.
So I played Candy Crush. At first, it was Candy Crush, and then it was Soda, and then I found Jelly. I finally gave up my “crush,” but recently I was missing Jelly so I took it back up again. It does not fail me. Turns out I must not have scrubbed it from my laptop or my FB account, ’cause it was still there and I was at level 159 or something like that. So… I’ve been playing.
And I write this because there are so often times that I’m like, “Playing Candy Crush can teach you life lessons.” Well, maybe I don’t say it in quite that malarkey tone, but something like that. I mean, think of it…
I’m on a level I can’t quite get past… Oh, I have to preface this with, I don’t spend any money on Candy Crush. Either I get through the levels with what’s given to me, or I don’t get through. And I don’t buy lives either. Okay, once I bought lives, but that was it. (I doth protest too much, eh?) I play Candy Crush Survivor-style — but maybe more like Naked & Afraid (without the bells and whistles and constantly not knowing what the heck I’m doing). Okay, back to my thought…
I’m on a level I can’t quite get past, and I begin to check in with myself. What is my mood? I’ve noticed with enough play time racked up now that when I’m angry with the game I don’t get past a level. You know, it’s like when I get caught up in the circumstance of the game and begin to think that this level may be the level that just does me in. There’s always one. No matter how high I go, or what I’ve come through before, there’s always this one level that seems to stump me. But… when I’ve got levity with the circumstance and I just somehow stop seeing it as a stumbling block and – and this is key – I am that I will move on from this silly level (you know the one that I was just calling this stupid *expletive* *expletive* level), then I totally move forward.
And, like the cherry on top, when I’m really happy/blissful/in the zone/whatever you want to call it, every candy bomb, striped candy, purple power jelly, monkling, or frosted puffer lines up without me even having to think about it. It’s almost like watching fireworks on the Fourth of July, ’cause it all just blows in radiant primary and secondary colors – ROYGBV flashing across the screen – and I’m out! On to the next level! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Flying through the air with the greatest of ease.
But then at some point, I’ll find myself in the angry, frustrated, calling the game names place again. And… that’s the beauty of life. To go back and forth with the greatest of ease.
Then I’m able to laugh at myself more when I’m in that place because it’s so crazy, so ludicrous, and so human. So I do. And when I get frustrated again, I’ll come back to the game at a later point – in time to win some free power candies, of course – and I’m off again. And I’m either in the frustrated place or the place of lightness, but that’s just what it is to be human. And I don’t take it so hard.
Life could be like Candy Crush Saga. It could. And whether that sounds asinine or not to you, it’s something to ponder, to consider, to contend with the “what if?” and the wonder of it all. If you bring a lot of playful levity to it, you could begin to experience what I do which is a supreme opportunity to witness myself in all my emotional glory and witness too how the game acts in response to me — energy following energy. I mean, it’d be you not me, of course. And you’d get to experience yourself. Then, maybe, a little bit at a time you could begin to apply what you experience with the game to the game of life; and play the hell out of it. Bliss would be present there!
This is what is meant by bringing childlike wonder to life. Try it. It’s fun. And a little jelly, too.
I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly… I don’t think you’re ready for this.
With glee,
Monique
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