Speaker 1: Hello, my friend. We are back with another episode of
Speaker 1: Love Someone, and this one is gonna be fun. We've
Speaker 1: got Nashville, Tennessee's best selling author. She's a popular speaker.
Speaker 1: She does her own podcast. Her name is Annie f. Downs.
Speaker 1: She's with us today, and she has written the book
Speaker 1: on fun. Literally, I'm not kidding. Her book That Sounds Fun,
Speaker 1: The Joys of being an Amateur, The Power of Falling
Speaker 1: in Love, and Why You Need a Hobby. It was
Speaker 1: released in February. She is the host of a very
Speaker 1: popular podcast, also called That Sounds Fun, as well as
Speaker 1: the founder of the That Sounds Fun Network. At this point,
Speaker 1: I'd say it's safe to say she is an expert
Speaker 1: on the topic of fun. Annie has been described as engaging, honest,
Speaker 1: a straight shooter who doesn't shy away from really tough topics.
Speaker 1: Like me, she seems to revel in time shared with
Speaker 1: friends and family and belly laughs. After the crazy train
Speaker 1: that we've been on in and into one, I think
Speaker 1: we need fun. We need to rethink fun. We need
Speaker 1: more fun, not as something we might get to after
Speaker 1: all our of our other priorities are taken care of,
Speaker 1: but something that we must prioritize right up there with
Speaker 1: our physical and spiritual needs. We need fun, We need laughter.
Speaker 1: You know the expression laughter is the best medicine. It is,
Speaker 1: it truly is. We need lots of laughter and joy
Speaker 1: and fun. Annie speaks to how we need it to survive.
Speaker 1: That fun is actually life saving medicine, and she's going
Speaker 1: to share some great tips on how to put the
Speaker 1: fun and the joy back in our lives. We're going
Speaker 1: to jump into the necessity of sanity saving Shenanigans. Oh boy,
Speaker 1: do I like Shenanigan's Right after I give my podcast
Speaker 1: sponsor the shout out that they deserve. Mercy Ships is
Speaker 1: our newest sponsor to this podcast. Every conversation we have
Speaker 1: here is about helping, about loving, about building community. There's
Speaker 1: a large group a community that support Mercy Ships. This
Speaker 1: is an organization that sends ships that have been converted
Speaker 1: into fabulous hospitals to some of the poorest communities in
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Speaker 1: real difference, the life and death difference they make by
Speaker 1: their good work. I encourage you to go to Mercy
Speaker 1: Ships dot org slash love to learn more. Mercy ships
Speaker 1: dot org slash love. It will do your heart good,
Speaker 1: it will change your heart, it will speak to your
Speaker 1: heart and such a powerful way. That's mercy ships dot
Speaker 1: org slash love. Welcome Annie Downs to love someone. I
Speaker 1: am so glad that we are talking about this topic
Speaker 1: because for years, for years, some people I won't mention names,
Speaker 1: but some people in my immediate family, some people that
Speaker 1: I was married to once upon a time. Some people
Speaker 1: think that I am a little Craig Craig because I
Speaker 1: love to have fun and I will go to great
Speaker 1: lengths to have fun and to do ridiculous, absolutely stupid,
Speaker 1: practical jokes to people. And I love that you celebrate
Speaker 1: corny fun. So which came first? Your book, your podcast,
Speaker 1: or your passion for belly laughs? Well, you know, for me,
Speaker 1: Delilah Prazards, thanks for having me on today. But for me,
Speaker 1: the I think what came first is just my natural
Speaker 1: love of fun. Like I kind of was just born
Speaker 1: this way and built this way. And so what I
Speaker 1: had to face first was when all my friends and
Speaker 1: I are growing up and becoming adults, why are they
Speaker 1: stopping talking about fun? But I still want to talk
Speaker 1: about it. So I really had to go through this
Speaker 1: season of like, what does it look like to continue
Speaker 1: to talk about fund? Does that mean I'm not grown up?
Speaker 1: Does that mean I'm Peter Pan? No. I have a
Speaker 1: job and I do my responsibilities, and and then I
Speaker 1: rise like maybe I'm just made this way. Maybe there's
Speaker 1: something too. There needs to be a few of us
Speaker 1: still on the planet that talked about the power of
Speaker 1: fun and what it actually means and what it's actually for.
Speaker 1: And so that's when the podcast came along, and then
Speaker 1: five six years later is when the book came along.
Speaker 1: All right, quick question here. Have you ever been asked
Speaker 1: to leave a movie theater because you laugh too loud? No?
Speaker 1: Have you more than once? At? Yeah? Really? Yep? Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, so you went on that one, doyla. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love to go to corny movies, really goofy, funny movies,
Speaker 1: and my laugh can be heard like a mile away,
Speaker 1: which the people sitting next to me don't usually appreciate.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you were built this way. Did you ever
Speaker 1: feel any like you were a square peg in a
Speaker 1: round hole, like like you just didn't fit in because
Speaker 1: you love to have fun? I think so, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think all of us can look back to sixth
Speaker 1: grade right and figure out, Man, I did not feel
Speaker 1: like I fit in. I mean, I think all of
Speaker 1: us have those stories from our childhood and from our
Speaker 1: adult life where we think I just did not fit
Speaker 1: in the way I wanted to, and I didn't fit
Speaker 1: in as much as I thought I wanted to to
Speaker 1: feel accepted and to feel loved and and so I
Speaker 1: think that's true. But the older I've gotten and the
Speaker 1: more I've gotten used to being in my body and
Speaker 1: in my life, and it really come around appreciating that
Speaker 1: we're each mate so uniquely. The more it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what side the whole is, I'm the right tag for it, right.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of what I've got and what I
Speaker 1: try to encourage people in the that sounds fun? The
Speaker 1: book has been like, Man, what do you love and
Speaker 1: and what matters to you? And what sounds fun to you?
Speaker 1: Because there's so much power in appreciating the unique way
Speaker 1: you were made a men sister, So, Annie, when it
Speaker 1: comes too fun, are you the practical joker kind of
Speaker 1: fun or are you just somebody who likes to experiment
Speaker 1: trying new things? I'm probably not the practical joker I
Speaker 1: probably way more lean on Let's get a group together
Speaker 1: and go do something fun. Let's take the next thirty
Speaker 1: minutes and do something fine. Let's take a break from
Speaker 1: work and do something fun and so practical joking kind of,
Speaker 1: I'm just maybe not smart enough to pull all those
Speaker 1: together in time. But I really love doing fun things
Speaker 1: that invite other people into it, that help people feel
Speaker 1: connect did and help people feel like man, that was
Speaker 1: a that was a better moment than I expected. Why
Speaker 1: does fun matter to you? Like, you know, I wrote
Speaker 1: a book about love because because that matters. Why does
Speaker 1: this concept of of levity or laughter or fun matter
Speaker 1: so much that you would write a book about it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean for me, I think fun really encompasses a
Speaker 1: lot of things we're looking for, and there aren't a
Speaker 1: lot of people talking about it. I like bringing up
Speaker 1: conversations that people want to be having but may not
Speaker 1: have the words for quite at the moment. Because when
Speaker 1: I think about fun, I think about, man, who are
Speaker 1: the people I want to be around, and who do
Speaker 1: I love? And and how does that play into what
Speaker 1: is fun for me? And and where are the places
Speaker 1: that I want to learn something new? And what are
Speaker 1: the hobbies I want to pick up. So to me,
Speaker 1: the idea of fun is is really all encompassing in
Speaker 1: our lives, and and so I wanted to write about
Speaker 1: that because it matters so deeply to me. I feel
Speaker 1: like it's really been an active part of shaping the
Speaker 1: lights that I have and shaping some of the best
Speaker 1: parts of my life. And and as I was having
Speaker 1: conversations about fun on the podcast on that Sounds Fun
Speaker 1: to Podcast, I realized, like, man, there is more to
Speaker 1: this conversation that I'm able to have just with these guests.
Speaker 1: I want to write about this and research this and
Speaker 1: dig into this, and and so it just kind of
Speaker 1: became the main thing I wanted to think about and
Speaker 1: talk about and write about. And there is such a
Speaker 1: huge void, it seems, especially especially this past year year
Speaker 1: and a half, this huge void of levity. Everything is
Speaker 1: so serious. Do you find that that people have been
Speaker 1: watching the news or being in COVID shutdown of kind
Speaker 1: of lost that fun bear. Yeah. For me, what I
Speaker 1: saw over the last year was a lot of us
Speaker 1: that we had these big dreams of fun that was
Speaker 1: going to I hadn't on my calendar two trips overseas
Speaker 1: or trips to Disney World or Disneyland, or or of
Speaker 1: these big concerts or sporting events you wanted to go to.
Speaker 1: And and when all of that gets canceled, we either
Speaker 1: kind of had the choice to to not have fun
Speaker 1: and to just kind of sit in the loss that
Speaker 1: we experienced, or we could try to find some simpler
Speaker 1: fund some easier, more local, more at home grown fun. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in feeling or feeling, so I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that that we needed to not be disappointed
Speaker 1: or sad. But at the same time, I mean, how
Speaker 1: many people got back into puzzles and got into bread making,
Speaker 1: and got into having conversations with friends over zoom people
Speaker 1: you hadn't talked to in a long time. And So
Speaker 1: what I saw over the last year and what I
Speaker 1: was glad is I was finishing writing that sounds fun,
Speaker 1: is when the pandemic began. So I got to kind
Speaker 1: of lay the filter of a worldwide pandemic on top
Speaker 1: of a book of fun and see if it all
Speaker 1: stayed true. And what I ended up realizing is, man,
Speaker 1: this is still a big meat in our lives and
Speaker 1: in our hearts, and there is a way to do
Speaker 1: that even when the world is not as you're used
Speaker 1: to it being. I got a confession to make, Annie,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. I had a hell of a lot of
Speaker 1: fun during the COVID shutdown. What did you do? I
Speaker 1: spent the entire year with my family. I didn't leave
Speaker 1: the house for weeks. I have never lived with my
Speaker 1: husband his career and my career since the day we met.
Speaker 1: We've lived in different states. We got married, we still
Speaker 1: live in different states, and we just you know, visit,
Speaker 1: we travel back and forth. But during the COVID shutdown,
Speaker 1: we lived together. Our whole family lived together on a
Speaker 1: five acre cattle ranch, and I can tell you it
Speaker 1: was one of the most fun experiences of my life
Speaker 1: to spend that kind of intimate time with my kids
Speaker 1: and my husband doing amazing things, simple things, but amazing things. So,
Speaker 1: what are some of the most silly or wonderfully spontaneous
Speaker 1: things that you have ever done? Just like you said,
Speaker 1: to pull people into the moment, to get them to
Speaker 1: lighten up, what are some of the really amazing moments
Speaker 1: that you have had that you would encourage other people
Speaker 1: not to do the same thing, obviously, but to just
Speaker 1: take a chance on fun. Well, you know what this
Speaker 1: is a great part about talking about fun is a
Speaker 1: lot of times the big and bold and wild fun
Speaker 1: things are actually not attainable to everybody and aren't necessarily
Speaker 1: what your fondest memories are. So what really comes to
Speaker 1: mind is like Friday at work. It got to me
Speaker 1: about four o'clock and we were all still stay around
Speaker 1: answering emails, and one of my co workers said, let's
Speaker 1: order guacamoley, and so we are guacamole just randomly on
Speaker 1: a Friday afternoon. That's not a big thing, but then
Speaker 1: it was really fun just to take him in and
Speaker 1: sit around and laugh and eat guacamole together. I also
Speaker 1: think about during the pandemic, some other girlfriends and I,
Speaker 1: you know, we we all live alone separately because we
Speaker 1: aren't married yet, and so we all live alone across town,
Speaker 1: and we decided to all watch the same movie at
Speaker 1: the same time over face time, and so it was
Speaker 1: a real small moment, but it was really meaningful to me.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of what I mean. One time,
Speaker 1: some friends and I, you can take a flight from
Speaker 1: Nashville where I live, down to Panama City to that airport,
Speaker 1: and we got on that morning flight on Southwest, and
Speaker 1: all we packed, we had our slim suits on in
Speaker 1: our clothes on top, and we just took our beach
Speaker 1: bags down and we flew down for seventy nine dollars
Speaker 1: and went and laid on the beach for the day
Speaker 1: and flew back on the evening flight that night for
Speaker 1: seventy nine dollars. So that was pretty fun. But man,
Speaker 1: I'm all for doing fun that is manageable as far
Speaker 1: as financially and time wise, so that instead of putting
Speaker 1: tons of pressure on a vacation in one week in
Speaker 1: the summer and said, you've been having fun all the
Speaker 1: way along A men to that. My mom was the
Speaker 1: queen of having fun on a shoestring budget. My dad
Speaker 1: always always worked, had a good job. We weren't poor,
Speaker 1: but we certainly weren't rich. You know, we lived very simply.
Speaker 1: They were very thrifty. But my mom could pull together
Speaker 1: a party on like five bucks, I kid you not,
Speaker 1: and on a whim. You know, on a Friday night,
Speaker 1: she'd say, let's go crabbing, and she'd get on the
Speaker 1: phone and call half the neighborhood and we'd all meet
Speaker 1: down at the crab dock. And my dad would bring
Speaker 1: his guitar and we would crab off the end of
Speaker 1: the dock and catch crab and cook them on the
Speaker 1: beach and have a party. Not a stupid, get drunk
Speaker 1: kind of stupid party, but just with four or five
Speaker 1: of the neighbors, ten of the neighbors, all the kids
Speaker 1: playing in the sand. My dad played the guitar until
Speaker 1: midnight or one or two o'clock in the morning. It
Speaker 1: cost us nothing. Yeah, And that, to me, that was
Speaker 1: a lot of what has gone sideways with fun is
Speaker 1: people expect themselves to come up with really grandiose, expensive, big,
Speaker 1: multi day fun. And I'm just such a fan of
Speaker 1: the simplicity of making it part of your every week,
Speaker 1: of your every day, of going back because when you
Speaker 1: were nine years old, you didn't have to think about fun.
Speaker 1: You just had it all the time. And now, of
Speaker 1: course we have more responsibilities, more things we have to
Speaker 1: worry about and think about, but we can still make
Speaker 1: that a part of our lives. I think I do
Speaker 1: that sometimes a little bit too much, so that my
Speaker 1: kids expect that everything is going to be fun, you know.
Speaker 1: I try to make games out of learning. I try
Speaker 1: to make food fun and make you know, pancakes that
Speaker 1: are the shape of butterflies, or I spell my kids
Speaker 1: names out with pancakes. Well, it gets to the point where, Mom,
Speaker 1: this this just a round pancake. What's up? You're not
Speaker 1: fun today? That's exactly right. When normal life is surprising
Speaker 1: to your family because they're used to you kind of
Speaker 1: kicking it up and not that's a pretty good life,
Speaker 1: It's true. And my my friends and family know that
Speaker 1: if I'm there, I'm going to kick it. If I'm
Speaker 1: not kicking it up a notch, if I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to have fun, there's something drastically wrong with me. I'm
Speaker 1: either in physical pain or emotional pain. No, just surely that.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times we all, I mean,
Speaker 1: we're all going to have off days, of course, and
Speaker 1: there are some personalities that are less inclined to showing
Speaker 1: up and being the party like you and I both are.
Speaker 1: But the beautiful thing is is we we all gathered together.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to feel connected, everybody wants to laugh, Everybody
Speaker 1: wants to have those kind of memories and those kind
Speaker 1: of moments. Some of us it's a little bit easier
Speaker 1: to think them up than others. But part of my
Speaker 1: hope with the book is that we've set out some
Speaker 1: ideas and some concepts for people that will help jump
Speaker 1: start them into what they're thinking about. So, how can
Speaker 1: we give me some baby steps to take? I think
Speaker 1: we've become very cynical and very divided as a nation
Speaker 1: as a society. Give us some annie, some baby steps.
Speaker 1: Maybe you spell them out and that sounds fun, But
Speaker 1: give us a starting point, a launching point for incorporating
Speaker 1: this idea of playfulness or fun back into our day,
Speaker 1: back into our routine. Yeah. I think it starts with
Speaker 1: a really simple question that you ask yourself, and you
Speaker 1: ask the people that you sit around and eat dinner with.
Speaker 1: And the question is what sounds fun to you? I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a really simple question. But what happens when you
Speaker 1: sit down and kind of ask around the table tonight
Speaker 1: at dinner. Okay, we're gonna answer everyone, want everybody answer
Speaker 1: this question? What sounds fun to you? What happens is
Speaker 1: it does get your brain spinning. I'm like, well, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I haven't thought about fun in a
Speaker 1: really long time. Okay, well think about it now, start
Speaker 1: thinking up. What does sound fun to you? Is it
Speaker 1: a particular band you want to see live in concert
Speaker 1: when we're able to do that again hopefully really soon.
Speaker 1: Or or is it a game you want to play?
Speaker 1: Is it an instrument you want to learn? Is it
Speaker 1: a recipe you want to cook? Is it a sport
Speaker 1: you want to try it for yourself? Like, there are
Speaker 1: so many answers to what sounds funky? Maybe it's just resting.
Speaker 1: Maybe what sounds fun for you is reading a book
Speaker 1: quietly for an hour. That's a great answer, And so
Speaker 1: I think asking yourself that question, it really is the
Speaker 1: first step in listening to your friends and family. Who
Speaker 1: you eat dinner with, or maybe you eat lunch with
Speaker 1: after church on Sunday, or maybe you're in small group
Speaker 1: with or you your co workers do you eat lunch
Speaker 1: with every day? But when you ask that question, it
Speaker 1: really stirs up something in you. It stirs up something
Speaker 1: and the people that are eating with you. And in fact,
Speaker 1: if you start, if you follow up that question with,
Speaker 1: well tell me why, that is almost always Delilah, You'll
Speaker 1: think this is so interesting. Almost always, as you get
Speaker 1: down deeper into the why behind what sounds fun to people,
Speaker 1: almost always points back to while when I was a
Speaker 1: kid dot dot dot because there's a simplicity that we
Speaker 1: miss and our adult lives and we want to taste
Speaker 1: that again. And one of the ways we get to
Speaker 1: have those moments is by finding fun in the life
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Speaker 1: you the home Depot how doers get more done? So
Speaker 1: it seems to me a lot of people are worried
Speaker 1: about looking foolish. They don't want to be not good
Speaker 1: at something. Like you said, when we were kids, I
Speaker 1: didn't care if I was the best soccer player. Well
Speaker 1: we didn't play soccer, but you know, the best volleyball player,
Speaker 1: the best swimmer, I just wanted to go to the
Speaker 1: pool and swim. I didn't care if I was wearing
Speaker 1: the best hiking boots and could hike ten miles without stopping.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to go climb on the hills behind
Speaker 1: our house. But then something happens where we judge ourselves
Speaker 1: or we have expectations of ourselves. How do you get
Speaker 1: past that and just go have fun again? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: mean part of that. In the book, the first section
Speaker 1: is actually titled the Joys of being an Amateur and
Speaker 1: how much it matters that we allow ourselves to begin
Speaker 1: at new things, to start something we've never done before,
Speaker 1: to give ourselves permission to be new at today where
Speaker 1: we are in our lives today. The only thing I
Speaker 1: want to be a professional act is my job. Everything
Speaker 1: else I want to stay an amateur I and being
Speaker 1: an amateur kind of gets a bad rap, But the
Speaker 1: reality is being an amateur just means you're trying something new,
Speaker 1: and you're doing things that you're not trying to be
Speaker 1: a professional act. Well, I'm never gonna be a professional athlete,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to play sports, and I'm never
Speaker 1: gonna be a professional like knitter, but I love cross fitting,
Speaker 1: and so we've got to give ourselves this permission of like,
Speaker 1: what if you are new at something, What if you
Speaker 1: aren't professional at something, do you still want to try?
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna be a professional chef, but I love cooking,
Speaker 1: So how do we go back and give ourselves permission
Speaker 1: to do that? It literally is just that Delilah of
Speaker 1: literally saying to yourself, it is okay if I don't
Speaker 1: know how to do everything and to be very good
Speaker 1: at everything. There is a lot of fun that comes
Speaker 1: from trying new things. But if you put the pressure
Speaker 1: on yourself to be a professional all the time, you're
Speaker 1: gonna miss out. How can people break out of their habits?
Speaker 1: It seems like the older we get, the more set
Speaker 1: in our ways. Where we have a routine where you know,
Speaker 1: this is my morning, this is my mid day, this
Speaker 1: is my afternoon, this is what I do in evening.
Speaker 1: That doesn't leave a whole lot of room for creativity
Speaker 1: and fun. How can we start to break out of
Speaker 1: that routine and invite fun back into our hearts, into
Speaker 1: our day, into our life. So to me, one of
Speaker 1: the real way to break out of our routine is
Speaker 1: actually not to ruin the routine you have. Just add
Speaker 1: fun to your calendar. I mean I encourage people all
Speaker 1: the time, Delilah, put thirty minutes of fun on your
Speaker 1: calendar this Saturday, for your whole family, for you and
Speaker 1: your partner, for you and your friends. Just say hey,
Speaker 1: will you block off two to two thirty on Saturday
Speaker 1: for us to have fun? Because everything you put on
Speaker 1: your calendar is what really matters to you and what
Speaker 1: you will prioritize and not just skip over. And so
Speaker 1: if you'll put fun on your calendar, then what happens
Speaker 1: is every day between now and Saturday, you're going, what
Speaker 1: are we gonna do in that thirty minutes? What are
Speaker 1: we gonna do that sounds fun? Well, what sounds fun
Speaker 1: to them? What sounds fun to me? And then as
Speaker 1: it gets closer, you've really done kind of a deep
Speaker 1: dive in your own heart and in your own life
Speaker 1: about what you want to do in that thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: And then what happens. I love this is you do
Speaker 1: your thirty minutes of fun. You're playing outside, you do
Speaker 1: a puzzle together, you you do whatever the fun thing
Speaker 1: is you and your friends decided to do together or
Speaker 1: you do alone. And then you reflect on it, just
Speaker 1: like we do with everything else. Well, that was really fun,
Speaker 1: but I wish the cookie recipe would have had more
Speaker 1: chocolate chips in it. We'll do it different next time.
Speaker 1: Or I wish we'd play soccer instead of tennis. Well
Speaker 1: next week, let's play soccer. And suddenly, instead of having
Speaker 1: to reshape your life because you're trying to add fun,
Speaker 1: you just make space for it on your calendar like
Speaker 1: you make space for everything else. You're also talk in
Speaker 1: your book about having hobbies. I have way, way, way,
Speaker 1: way too many hobbies. I am buried under stacks of
Speaker 1: projects that are fun hobbies that I start. But a
Speaker 1: lot of people I know don't have hobbies. Talk about
Speaker 1: why you think it's important that folks pick up a hobby.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. I like that you have a lot of hobbies.
Speaker 1: I think that's really great. I think one of the
Speaker 1: reasons we need those hobbies that you experienced this in
Speaker 1: your life probably as much as anybody, Delila, is if
Speaker 1: it really matters that we have some space away from
Speaker 1: our phones, away from technology. Because I hate to break
Speaker 1: it to all of our friends listening, but scrolling is
Speaker 1: not a hobby. Scrolling on Instagram is not a hobby.
Speaker 1: Hobbies are things where you create something, or you make something,
Speaker 1: or you invest your time and your your energy into
Speaker 1: something important like a cookie recipe or cross stitching or
Speaker 1: learning a new instrument, and so a lot of times
Speaker 1: the reason we need those is we need something that
Speaker 1: helps us to rest our brains. And so if we
Speaker 1: work with our brains all week, we need to rest
Speaker 1: with our hands and make things, create things, It really
Speaker 1: helps your brains to rest. So I think hobbies matter
Speaker 1: for that reason that they help us to rest in
Speaker 1: a really deep and I think profound way. So what
Speaker 1: are some of your hobbies? What do I love to
Speaker 1: do well? To me? Right now? I'm working my way
Speaker 1: through one of Danielle Walker's cookbooks, So I'm cooking on
Speaker 1: the weekends through in that cookbook and sharing the toils
Speaker 1: of my labor with my friends and family, and so
Speaker 1: that's one that I'm doing right now. I love playing
Speaker 1: outside and just being outside, So anything I can do
Speaker 1: like that is a hobby for me, whether it's playing
Speaker 1: frisbee or soccer whatever. And as I meant to a
Speaker 1: couple of times, I'm kind of getting back into cross
Speaker 1: fitting Dewila, like my grandmother taught me thirty years ago,
Speaker 1: and I just hadn't picked it up in a really
Speaker 1: long time. And I realized a couple of months ago
Speaker 1: that I was kind of tired of watching TV and
Speaker 1: rolling on my phone. I feel like I was wasting
Speaker 1: my life, and so I decided to start making something.
Speaker 1: So I started making some new patterns, some crosstitch patterns,
Speaker 1: and making gifts for my friends. And I absolutely am
Speaker 1: having the best time. Do you know, Annie, the average
Speaker 1: American spins between six and fourteen hours a day on screens. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's wild. It is absolutely wild and so one. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that's why it matters so much. I take on.
Speaker 1: There's a day a week every week that I am not.
Speaker 1: I am not on technology at all. I just needed
Speaker 1: my brain to rest. I need to not take in
Speaker 1: so much information. And so even this week on Saturday,
Speaker 1: I finished reading a book that I loved by Charles
Speaker 1: Martin called The water Keeper, and I just sat on
Speaker 1: my couch and had music playing through my speakers and
Speaker 1: rent for a couple of hours. And and of course
Speaker 1: the temptation was there to check my phone and check
Speaker 1: Instagram and for all the science that they tell us
Speaker 1: behind the dopamine rush that having that little red notification.
Speaker 1: Give that. But I have learned that my my life
Speaker 1: is healthier when I take some separations from screens. That
Speaker 1: is hard. And as a parent with kids, it's really
Speaker 1: hard to try to impress upon them to put put
Speaker 1: it down, put it away, but the computer away, turn
Speaker 1: it off, walk away, let's go have fun. You would
Speaker 1: think that young people would be the one saying, mom,
Speaker 1: let's go out fun. But it's it's sad how addicted
Speaker 1: youth are today to that dopamine that you get on
Speaker 1: screen time. Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean it is,
Speaker 1: it is for all of us. It's addicting. I think
Speaker 1: I'm grateful that I did not have to be a
Speaker 1: teenager with social media. I think it is probably one
Speaker 1: of the highest pressure times in the life of a
Speaker 1: teenager is right now trying to maneuver, I mean, with
Speaker 1: as much trouble is I have Delilah, not getting my
Speaker 1: my identity and my joy out of social media. I
Speaker 1: can't imagine trying to do this at fort in fifteen sixteen,
Speaker 1: and so I really and as you as a parent,
Speaker 1: I mean, I just honor y'all who are parenting teenagers
Speaker 1: and young adults through social media um and teaching them that,
Speaker 1: you know, there are so much life outside of your phone,
Speaker 1: and so much life outside of video games, and we
Speaker 1: need need to get out there and see it and
Speaker 1: experience it. That is the biggest challenge I think I
Speaker 1: face as a parent is keeping my kids engaged in
Speaker 1: life instead of addicted to to a fake life. This
Speaker 1: this alternative reality. M hmm, that's right, that's right. That's
Speaker 1: reminding them that, you know, there's there is real bread
Speaker 1: to be made in the kitchen, and they're real friends
Speaker 1: to be made out in the world, and and there's
Speaker 1: real relationships and real connection and and you know, real
Speaker 1: beautiful things we can do. Even in a garden, there's
Speaker 1: real things to grow. The video games where you're growing
Speaker 1: things are fun, but man, let's get outside and actually
Speaker 1: make errant, you know. And I think that that I
Speaker 1: see a lot of my friends who are parenting really
Speaker 1: working towards that and working on that and helping their
Speaker 1: children and even themselves see a life outside of their
Speaker 1: phone that is really worth investing in. Well, Lucky for me,
Speaker 1: I am very blessed with the land and the gardens
Speaker 1: and the carrots um. But it is pulling teeth to
Speaker 1: get my kids to put the damned devices down and
Speaker 1: go outside and jump. They even want to take them
Speaker 1: on the trampoline. I'm like, are you insane? I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't feel the same pressure sometimes to myself where
Speaker 1: I have to say to my I mean, I have
Speaker 1: all these boundaries set on my phone, all these limits
Speaker 1: that so that I can parent myself and parent my
Speaker 1: phone and how I want to interact with my phone,
Speaker 1: so I don't en be any of y'all who are
Speaker 1: raising other people. I'm working on raising myself using technology.
Speaker 1: So you talk about that a little bit in your
Speaker 1: book about raising yourself About difficulty is about about tough
Speaker 1: times and vulnerable times in your life. Uh, which is
Speaker 1: it would seem strange to have that in a book
Speaker 1: called you know that sounds fun, but you're very honest
Speaker 1: and very transparent. Yeah, it just really mattered to me
Speaker 1: when I was writing this, and and this is how
Speaker 1: I am with my book, says, it just matters that
Speaker 1: the friends who are reading it on the other side
Speaker 1: feel like I'm telling the truth. Now I don't have
Speaker 1: to tell every single detail, and that's the beauty of
Speaker 1: having editors and people on my team who helped read
Speaker 1: manuscript before they become public, and they say to me like, hey, Annie,
Speaker 1: this is probably too much detail or the They also
Speaker 1: sometimes go, hey, you started this story, but I actually
Speaker 1: know there's more here for you to tell. And they
Speaker 1: pushed me and encouraged me to be more vulnerable. But
Speaker 1: it mattered to me that in a book about fun people,
Speaker 1: people don't feel like I'm Pollyanna, like I'm trying to
Speaker 1: write this from a life that does not know pain
Speaker 1: or loss or disappointment or heartbreak. Instead, like we learned
Speaker 1: the movie inside Out, what's actually true is they go
Speaker 1: better hand in hand, joy and suffering, joy and sadness.
Speaker 1: They're actually both brighter when they are both held together.
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to write a book that said, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm inviting you to fun, and I'm inviting you to
Speaker 1: prioritize this, but I'm inviting you from a place of
Speaker 1: a real life that knows real pain, not from you know,
Speaker 1: not a Disney Channel princess kind of life. You also
Speaker 1: mentioned in the book that sounds fun that living by
Speaker 1: faith isn't always fun. M hm hm yeah. And I
Speaker 1: think the problem is is whether it's your faith or
Speaker 1: the career path you're on, or even though you know
Speaker 1: what your favorite hobbies are, there's always a risk that
Speaker 1: people are going to look at your life and for
Speaker 1: whatever is going on inside their life, they're gonna determine
Speaker 1: they need to judge your life so they feel better
Speaker 1: about themselves. And that is just I mean, sadly, that's
Speaker 1: the nature of being surrounded by humans, right, But that's
Speaker 1: I think that's why it matters so much that we
Speaker 1: each really focus on and get a real handle on
Speaker 1: that you're not an accident, that your uniqueness is really
Speaker 1: important to our planet being as colorful and wonderful and
Speaker 1: vibrant as it is. And so the things you love
Speaker 1: and the faith you hold tight to, don't let it
Speaker 1: go just because someone's judging you. Remember that you're bringing
Speaker 1: a unique collection of personality traits to this planet and
Speaker 1: we need that. I love the expression. I saw it
Speaker 1: years ago. God looked around and realized the world needed you.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's beautiful. I love that. And boy, that makes
Speaker 1: you think differently about your neighbors and the person who
Speaker 1: cuts you off in traffic, and you know, of was
Speaker 1: going like, man, the world needed them. The world needed them.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what makes falling in love so special,
Speaker 1: and loving people, as you talk about so much like
Speaker 1: loving people is so special because you go, man, I
Speaker 1: I can't imagine lie without knowing you, Like God knew
Speaker 1: the world needed you and knew that I needed you.
Speaker 1: And it's why lost is so profound and deep is
Speaker 1: because love and lost goes so close hand in hand.
Speaker 1: But I think that's a beautiful thought and reminds me
Speaker 1: of so many people that I love. If we can
Speaker 1: take that posture, how much more fun is life if
Speaker 1: we look around and go, man, what it gifts all
Speaker 1: these people are and really living with them? And God,
Speaker 1: that's that's a beautiful thought. It makes me more excited
Speaker 1: than ever to think about the people that I love. Well,
Speaker 1: you go love on the people that you love. Annie.
Speaker 1: Tell my audience how they can find you, how they
Speaker 1: can find your book, how they can find your podcast,
Speaker 1: how they can find your infectious joy for living. You're
Speaker 1: trying to live to thank you, Okay, so I'm embarrassingly
Speaker 1: easy to find. It's Annie f Downs everywhere, just like Fun.
Speaker 1: Annie f Downs on all the social media places that sounds.
Speaker 1: Fun's podcast releases on Mondays and Thursdays, and you can
Speaker 1: find that wherever you love to listen to podcasts. And
Speaker 1: the book That Sounds Fun is available everywhere. It's been
Speaker 1: out for about two months. It's been really fun to
Speaker 1: see people embracing new hobbies telling me that they laughed
Speaker 1: and cried when they read it. So you can grab
Speaker 1: it from your local bookstore. They can order it for
Speaker 1: you if they don't have it on the shelf, or
Speaker 1: you can go online and get it where you love
Speaker 1: to buy books. I'm gonna leave you with this one
Speaker 1: thought that we started doing when COVID hit, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give it this. This is my present to you. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. So you said that you live alone. You're
Speaker 1: going to have to do this over skypeer zoom until
Speaker 1: things open up. But every night at dinner since COVID hit,
Speaker 1: we've been having family dinners just like we had grown up.
Speaker 1: And every night at dinner we ask a question and
Speaker 1: go around the table and everybody responds. So the questions
Speaker 1: are as ridiculous as you can imagine, or as poignant
Speaker 1: as you could imagine, and it has given me such
Speaker 1: insights into the people that God has placed in my
Speaker 1: life that it just boggles my mind. It blows my mind.
Speaker 1: And it's to the point now that if we sit
Speaker 1: down for dinner and I don't have a question or
Speaker 1: Papa doesn't have a question, the kids are like, what,
Speaker 1: what's what's the question? Where's the question? We need the question?
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, you guys come up with the question,
Speaker 1: and they've come up with some really good ones. Favorite one, well, uh,
Speaker 1: if you could travel back in time and have a
Speaker 1: conversation with yourself at twelve, what would you say? Or
Speaker 1: if you could have one meal with anybody in history,
Speaker 1: who would you choose to have a meal with? Great question,
Speaker 1: I mean, amazing, talk about fun that those meals we'll
Speaker 1: live in my heart forever because you know, as the
Speaker 1: is open up and we get busy again, I know
Speaker 1: we won't have those opportunities. But what a blessing mum. Huh.
Speaker 1: So that's my gift to you, the meal question. I'm
Speaker 1: going for that question tonight. If you get have dinner
Speaker 1: with anybody in history, hug with I can't wait to
Speaker 1: ask my friends up my parting gift to you, And
Speaker 1: you've been so generous with your time and with your
Speaker 1: love and with your fun. Whenever you're with family or friends,
Speaker 1: come up with a really good question. What one of
Speaker 1: the questions was, if you could go to Mars, knowing
Speaker 1: you would never get to return to Earth, would you go?
Speaker 1: Oh wow? What was your answer? I don't know. Of
Speaker 1: the people at my table, there were nine of us
Speaker 1: said not just no, but hail no. Why would I
Speaker 1: leave my family? Yeah? Wow? Yeah? Good? Thank you Piah,
Speaker 1: you got you got my brain spinning. Now, all right,
Speaker 1: Annie f Downs any Fun Downs. The book is called
Speaker 1: that Sounds Fun, the same name of the podcast. I
Speaker 1: imagine if somebody wanted to look you up on Instagram
Speaker 1: or Facebook, they would look up Annie f Downs. Yes, ma'am,
Speaker 1: that's it, all right, Thank you go have fun. Thanks,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. All right, bubbye, sweetheart. Right talking
Speaker 1: to Annie f As in Fun Downs was indeed fun.
Speaker 1: I can understand why she's considered an expert on the
Speaker 1: topic of fun. Her voice bubbling over with enthusiasm, personality,
Speaker 1: and she had some very solid information to back up
Speaker 1: her assertion that we need we need fun in our lives.
Speaker 1: Like Annie said, we need to make time for fun
Speaker 1: by actually putting it on our calendar. Prioritizing it just
Speaker 1: as you would a business meeting, a dentist appointment, a
Speaker 1: school conference. Another tip she shared that I appreciated, and
Speaker 1: I know this to be true, is that hobbies making,
Speaker 1: doing things with your hands, creating helps to put our
Speaker 1: over active mind at ease. Coloring those coloring books they
Speaker 1: make that have such beautiful pictures and are whimsical, those
Speaker 1: put your mind at ease right away. And finally, my
Speaker 1: favorite takeaway from this whole conversation, give yourself necessary breaks
Speaker 1: from the electronics, necessary breaks from texting, emailing, scrolling, going
Speaker 1: on social media. Resist the temptation. Instead, pick up a book,
Speaker 1: take a walk, talk to a friend that remember what
Speaker 1: it's like to be engaged with the real, the tangible,
Speaker 1: the authentic world, and be yourself. These experiences, the things
Speaker 1: you do with your hands, the things you make, the
Speaker 1: conversations you have with your kids so much better than
Speaker 1: anything you're going to find on Twitter. It truly is,
Speaker 1: and it gave us the information we need. You can
Speaker 1: find her podcast or her books by the same name.
Speaker 1: That sounds fun. I encourage you to spend a little
Speaker 1: time gathering ideas and inspiration. I also got to encourage
Speaker 1: you to join me every single night on the radio
Speaker 1: as I play your request and dedications and find all
Speaker 1: of my podcast loves Someone, where I will continue my mission,
Speaker 1: my unending mission of shining a light in your direction
Speaker 1: to help dispel some of the darkness, and maybe, just
Speaker 1: maybe we'll have a whole lot of fun.