Undermining our desperate need to 'fit-in' 

At Saturday’s retreat, Uddoytani asked us to think of ways of introducing playfulness into our lives. We pinned suggestions on the walls for everyone to read and ultimately wrote them down on individual coloured paper ‘wheels of fortune’ that we’d made.

One suggestion was ‘give exaggerated thanks’.

Yesterday I enjoyed exaggeratedly thanking my partner Tim every time he made me a cup of tea. He laughed every time. This morning though, when I tried the same thing, he said rather curtly, ‘one thank you will do.’ It was time to try it in the wider world. 

The woman at the bank did a double take when I thanked her a million, billion, trillion times for giving me back my cheque book. I tried it again with cashier in the Co-op when she handed me my £1.58 change. She looked worried. Did she think I was mocking her? Or perhaps she thought she’d given me too much change!

I’ll be persevering over the next few days, as I’m sure someone (especially someone uncompromised by the staff-customer relationship) will spontaneously join in the game (whatever it is).But even before they do, I’d like to celebrate the delicious amounts of inner laughter that this practice has given me. Doing something so nonsensical in public has for the time being totally undermined my desperate mission to fit in and be seen as a responsible member of society. Which is a profound and hilarious relief. So thank you to the person who wrote that suggestion.

In fact thank you a million, billion, trillion times.

Thank you for that Mandy... er, thank you, thank you, thank you! In fact as many thank-you's as there are grains of sand in the Ganges, Ed.

(There will be more from Mandy tomorrow)