Last Thanksgiving, a friend of ours, Ryan, introduced us to game called “I like”.
The rules of this game are simple. You go around the table one by one and say something that starts with “I like”. Oh, and you can’t qualify it. None of this, “I like snowflakes but I really hate like how it gets so cold in winter that my teeth hurt.” No. No buts, just simple statements about things you like, one after the other in a chain of positive declaration.
It’s a really cool game.
(Also, once or twice Mike and I have gone to one of the few wine bars in Luang Prabang and ordered ourselves a glass of cheap Chilean wine – wine whose long journey across the Pacific has done nothing to improve its flavour – and played “I don’t like”. Same rules, just backwards. In occasional, time-limited moderation this is oddly cathartic.)
But back to the positive version of this game. Listening to others voice their like statements without being able to push pause and ask them questions (another rule, no “why” questions while you’re playing) was fascinating. I learned things about my friends that night, as all those simple statements pointing to the beautiful in life swirled around the table in a rising tide of affirmation.
We’re in the final stages of our home leave trip to the US now. Two more days and we’ll be heading back to the airport.
(I don’t like airports! I don’t like flying! I especially don’t like airports and flying with babies!)
Sorry, just had to get that out. Now I can move on to the point of this post. The likes. There have been many things to like during this trip. Here are just a few.
Cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Ice cream. Laughing with a sister. Chick Fil’A. Rocking chairs. Green grass and blue skies. Baby smiles and baby laughs. Crisp breezes. Shady forest paths. Sweet potato fries. Free shipping from Amazon. Slow flowing rivers. Reunions. Wine from New Zealand. Crawling babies. Five weeks of team parenting. Peanut butter cups. Quiet cabins in the woods. Day trips. Meals with friends. Cheap children’s books. Sweet time with precious author friends. Writing conferences. Barbeque sauce. Books going to print. Fires on cold nights. Babies with chocolate ice cream on their faces.
We leave here on Thursday and we arrive back in Laos on Sunday after spending a day at our favorite hospital in Bangkok for Dominic’s first follow-up appointment. So I’ll be back with you from Laos next week and you’ll soon be hearing a lot more from me as things kick into gear for the book release on June 4th.
I’m organizing a virtual book tour from Laos, so let me know if you’d like me to visit your blog during June or July to guest post or do a Q&A – I’d love to.
What are some of your “I likes” from the last month?
13 comments
I like dinner with Lisa! I like friends that remind me that my marriage is more important than work. I like beautiful blue scarves from Laos. I also like cupcakes.
I read this and I looked for the “like” button. It’s too early in the morning for me to figure out if that counts as irony, but it definitely counts as a smile.
I don’t have a blog (well, I don’t have a blog that would help you sell books…) but there might be something creative we could do on FB… just a thought.
That would be neat!
One of our family traditions was to go around the table every evening and say what everyone’s favorite thing that day was. That way the day ended on a positive note.
Oooh, I like that one.
We do that, although it has now evolved into ‘favourite things’and it always amazes me how my kids ALWAYS say dinner is one of their favourite things. Even if we’ve been having a horrible, full-of-arguments-and-fights kind of dinner, without fail ‘dinner’ is on their list of favourite things! Kids are strange… 🙂
This made me laugh.
I like rain. I like garden fresh produce from our own labor. Learning to preserve fruits and vegetables. Trial and error. Friends who are there when you need them. Being a friend someone can call on. I like the end of the school year. I like Mother’s Day, my birthday, and our anniversary all being in the same month. I like planning the Summer, even if we “aren’t doing anything.”
Oooh, trial and error. Good one.
I love this game! We need to add this to our dinner routine for awhile, I think. Reminders of what we like are so refreshing.
I am dying to read your book! So I’m jumping on the guest post idea right away. I’d love to have you do a guest post in June/July. E-mail me and we’ll work it out! 🙂
Email’s on it’s way!
sounds like the perfect dinnertime conversation game 😉
Comments are closed.