Play and Encounter

I tried to answer the question, “What’s your favourite word?” but I couldn’t do it. One word isn’t enough. My world is held together by tensions. Not contradictions to be solved, but creative tensions to be lived. The energy is in the middle, in the space where both are true at once.

So it makes sense that I can’t settle on just one word. Instead, I choose two: Play and Encounter. And I’ve let these words speak to each other.

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Play: You take yourself so seriously. Always arriving in whispers, eyes wide, hearts pounding. Don’t you ever want to grin, to skip, to break the silence with a laugh?

Encounter: And you—forever tossing jokes like confetti. Don’t you ever stop long enough to feel the ache? Life isn’t only a playground. Sometimes it’s a threshold. Sometimes it’s holy.

Play: But if the world is only thresholds and holy moments, people collapse under the weight. I’m the air in the lungs, the spark in the eye, the courage to step forward when the silence feels too much.

Encounter: And if the world is only games and chuckles, it becomes hollow. I’m the anchor. I give your joy its resonance, your laughter its echo. Without me, delight dissolves like sugar in rain.

Play: (grinning) You sound like an old prophet. Well, I’m a jester in flight—always moving, always improvising.

Encounter: And I am the roots—drawing deep, holding steady, reminding wings that flight depends on something hidden.

Play: But don’t forget, roots without wings are just stuck.

Encounter: And wings without roots are lost.

Play: Then maybe the magic is when we show up together—when laughter breaks open awe, and awe gives laughter its depth.

Encounter: Yes. The duet no one expected. Freedom in step with reverence. Mischief with meaning.

Play: I’ll keep mischief alive.

Encounter: And I’ll keep wonder alive.

Play: You’ll slow me down when I’m about to scatter.

Encounter: And you’ll wake me up when I’m about to suffocate.

Together: And in our tension, life finds its spark.