Morning Prayers

She sat with friends drinking tea. A yoga workshop had just ended and they were giddy with physical release and spiritual exercise. The talk began to flow and a question was raised. How much play is part of a spiritual awakening? And how does sensuality and erotic play fit? She sipped her tea closing her eyes and let her thoughts dip into her conversations with her lover.

When they married she knew that they each had their ways and desires regarding sex, excitement and sensual playfulness. She just did not realize how far their exploration would grow. As a newly wed woman she thought her dating days exposed her to much in the way of exploration. She never thought that in marriage this would go much deeper.

She came back to the conversation going on around her. A handful of friends, men and women, were twittering about the questions adding their thoughts. She spoke.

"The thrill of erotic play, or frankly any play, is the fact that you don't always know what will happen. What will be released? Play let's you explore places you haven't traveled before. Erotic play takes you to things in your psyche that you may have never thought existed before."

"So play can put you in some pretty interesting 'dilemmas'. It is probably no secret to many of you women, that men love to show off" she says as a few women chuckle, "and this includes having a great looking girlfriend, wife, lover, whomever next to them. It makes some men just feel aroused and flattered. Come on, admit it guys..." Now a few sheepish smiles come to the men's lips.

"Well, for a woman the dilemma in this situation is how much can you enjoy and explore. The idea of being the center of a man's attention and even flaunting it a little is, yes I will admit it, pretty fun. So do you keep your attention directed only to him, or do you take it another level for his thrill?"

"Do you smile slyly at the handsome waiter pretending to secretly flirt with him knowing your lover in the booth with you is playing along pretending not to notice, but is actually loving the sensuality spilling out of you in this little charade? Do you sit in your beautiful outfit in that booth with some leg or cleavage showing pretending not to be aware of it, and just driving both men – your lover and waiter – crazy?"

This little exercise in thought play has brought the circle of friends to laughter congratulating her on her creative mind (with emphasis on creative!). Now she takes the exercise further being playful with her friends in her own right.

"And where does this go from here? How much exploration and openness to the unexpected are you willing to take? Maybe you are now out with your girlfriends and your man is home working on the bills having put the kids to bed – yes, a fantasy in itself – and you call from the bar. You tell him your friends met some men and they are dragging you off to the next place. You will be home a little late, and then you say in a secretive tone that your girlfriends threaten to bring you along for the whole night since they don't want to lose these guys. You then insinuate in a truly conspiring tone that you may be kidnapped by one of the men for his pleasure so your girlfriends can have theirs! Then you say that you have to go and hang up quickly..."

"Well, that certainly brings a new dimension to you man's thoughts as he sits at home. Does he play along? Does he root for a specific outcome? Did you just rock his world again by such phone call?"

By now the circle of friend are hooting and clapping not sure if you are a liberated women of the world or an evil temptress! Many of the women are secretly thinking which of these roles they like best to be. The men are quiet with a slight look of "flight or fight" look on their face. You finish by saying:

"This is the play that we have all around us, but many times do not recognize or are afraid to explore. It is the story told by Shiva, Vishnu and Hanuman. Shakespeare writes about it in "A Mid-Summer Night Dream", and much of Carnival or Mardi Gras' essence is the exploring and releasing these of tensions."

"For play is like smoke. It is lighter than air and circles our conscious bellowing out at times in dark blinding plumes and quickly evaporating into small wisps that ride up and away. The question is whether you are willing at that moment to go into the smoke when it is there and see what adventures happens."

...

That night she laid in bed thinking about the conversation and play. She and her husband had explored much, but she knew that there was more to come. Right now she remembered a play that was unexpected. It began when one day she stepped out of the shower during a spring morning. Her nakedness did not bring chills to her, but the warmth of spring drifted into the bathroom like smoke. Her man then came in groggy, disheveled and naked ...to her quite sexy. He reached for her and kissed her with energy and growing passion literally. He pushed down on her shoulder as his signal for her to kneel on the bath mat. No words had been spoken yet. He was there in mind and spirit, but more in a trance of desire and firm resolve to have her.

He placed his cock in her mouth and she warm to the task letting him direct her motion, hands and head. The thing he could not control was her acceptance of her role as his pleasure and the moans that came with it. He step back and surprised her by cumming all over her face and body. He moaned his desire to mark her as his and doing it so everyone could see it. She felt the pull of his desire and glad she had allowed it to happen.

From that day on seeing the bath mat always gave her a remembrance of desire and play allowed.