The Gift of Laughter

smiley faceYesterday, I had the best conversation with my mother.  She called me on the way home from work like she sometimes does, and we started chatting about various topics like the severe weather in my town, my chickens, and Mom’s job.  Somehow we ended up talking about the Kindle Fire, and I told her, “Fred says that Amazon is going to release a new Kindle . . .”

Mom cut me off.  “Did you say Fred said Amazon is going to breed a new Kindle?”

I started laughing hysterically.  “No, MOM! Release.  I said they’re going to RELEASE a new Kindle.”

And of course that little misunderstanding led us to the topic of misunderstanding things that you hear.  It happens to all of us, right? Someone’ll say something that doesn’t make any sense and all, and it turns out that we just misheard it.

The more Mom and I talked, it reminded me of my most recent (and utterly hilarious) case of not hearing something properly.  I was at Mass, and one of my favorite groups in the music ministry, Giggin’ Fer God, was providing the music for that liturgy.  It came time to receive Communion, and they announced the first Communion hymn — Somos el Cuerpo de Cristo.  It’s a song with a very festive beat.  People usually clap their hands, and it just makes you want to dance.

As they got into the first verse of the song, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself.  I was sitting in the back of the church, so it was going to be a while before it was my turn to receive Communion.  This meant that I had time to participate in the music.  Thing was, I couldn’t this picture out of my head.  I pictured people dancing in some sort of chorus line as they went ot receive Communion, and I pictured the priest, the deacon, and the other Communion ministers twirling in circles with their clothes flying away from their bodies (the way a skater’s skirt flies away from her body as she spins.)

The more I imagined this scene, the more the tears started to flow because I was laughing so hard (silently, of course.) Then, my daydream was interrupted by what I swore was Giggin’ Fer God singing, “Donde esta el bano?” For those of you who don’t know, that’s Spanish for “Where’s the bathroom?” Now, I know those folks didn’t really sing it that way, but that’s what my brain heard and I was DONE! Thank goodness it was near the end of Mass because I would have had to excuse myself to regain my composure.

So I recounted this story to Mom, and of course she started laughing which made ME start laughing.  Before I knew it, the tears were rolling again and the back of my head was hurting because I was laughing so hard.  After a couple more minutes of incoherent laughter, Mom said something to me that sort of came out of nowhere, but it was so powerful.  “I laugh every day.  I have lines on my face from laughing, and if that’s the price I pay, I’m happy with that.”

I couldn’t agree more.  In fact, I’m always telling people, “Well, what can you do? You can either laugh about it or cry about it, and personally, I choose to laugh.” Life is too short.  Please, for the sake of your own well-being and that of those around you, laugh every day.  Don’t take life or yourself too seriously because when it comes down to choosing between laughter and crying, laughter’s a whole lot more fun!

Keep it positive, and remember that what you do matters!

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