Life without laughter…

Isn’t life funny? In every sense of the word — laughable, strange, ironic, and all those other adjectives for which people often substitute “funny.” I suppose that’s why I value my sense of humor. It’s an important part of who I am, as those people who endure my corny jokes, observations, and comic relief can attest. Truly, I don’t know how I would have made it this far in life without the ability to laugh at myself and the craziness called life that surrounds me.

Of course, I didn’t always have this skill — the ability to laugh at myself.

There was a time when I had a hard time admitting to any mistakes or shortcomings. The thought of being wrong or somehow less than right transformed my stomach into a black hole and my heart into a series of thumping explosions. I’m happy to own my former defensiveness and lack of humor — it was what I knew then. I was raised by a woman who was quick to find fault, remind you of all your previous infractions, and found absolutely nothing humorous. But — at some point we have to own our issues no matter how we received them, and I realized I needed to grow beyond this rigid (and boring) perfectionism.

I’m so glad I got over myself.

You see, the amazing thing about a sense of humor has nothing to do with life always being funny. It’s not, and in fact, can at times be profoundly NOT-funny. But nonetheless, I can persevere and tell myself “One day — far, far in the future –I will laugh about this. It will be funny, just not today.” And no matter the difficulty, I can do my best, and if it’s a colossal failure I can laugh about it later.

With humor came another important realization.

“I’m not going to keel over and die just because times are hard.” The sun comes up, problems arise, I do the best I can, and the sun goes down. The next day I’ll get up and do it again. Eventually the problem will resolve, and hopefully life will be brighter. Sound depressing? It’s actually quite liberating. I know that I will continue. And so what if I don’t get it right? I’m human — perfectly imperfect.

The impact of humor becomes even more evident when you involve other people.

Go ahead, make someone laugh when they are troubled. Tell them a silly joke, or share something funny with them. Watch them transform from pensive to light. Does humor solve problems? No. It doesn’t even diminish them. I think it does something else, though. It gives us perspective. It helps us realize that every moment will pass — good and bad — and that we are not alone. Plus, let’s face it, I’m pretty sure when the angels sing, it sounds very much like laughter — the kind that starts in your eyes and ends in your belly.

Now the more I use my sense of humor, the funnier life gets.

People are crazy. Truth is much stranger than fiction. And some of the most hysterically funny stories were not funny at all when they happened. Yet somehow knowing that one day — far, far in the future perhaps — this will be funny (just not today) seems to make the hard times a little more bearable.

So, take solace the next time your zipper breaks and your skirt falls straight to the ground in the parking lot, or your marriage counselor tells you he has no clue why you ever got married to begin with and there’s no point in you coming back, or your boss tells you that she decided your performance rating in the shower that morning and it wasn’t nearly as good as you thought it should be. One day, far far in the future, this will be incredibly funny. What do you think?

Until next time, namaste,

Candice