Laughing with Life

Laughing with Life

by Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

Perhaps humor is the sixth sense. After all, we talk about having a good sense of humor. Of all the blessings that fill my cup, I think that my sense of humor is probably the most important. The ability to laugh at the play of my life and how seriously imbedded I can become in it, makes everything infinitely easier. Humor creates a lightness of spirit and relieves the burdens of the great seriousness with which we think about life and death and the mysteries of the universe. Laughter is healing and it shakes off the dreariness of perfectionism and the angst around success and failure. My failures are far funnier than any success that I have ever had.

I have certainly been blessed with friends that will laugh with me, even in the middle of some intense drama in which I find myself. Laughing together creates connection and a feeling of not being on the journey alone. One friend always used to say, "Oh look how cute you are! Look at this little mess you have created! Isn't that adorable!" After I got my teeth unclenched, it would always make me smile and soon we would be laughing about the past situations that were even bigger messes.

Laughing at myself creates an acceptance of the journey. Many times we have been made fun of and laughed at in a way that makes us feel not ok. When I laugh at myself or help others to laugh at themselves, it has a good feeling of being ok just the way we are. Believe me, even those people who look like they know what is going on don't even have a clue. Such is the nature of the human experience. Life is full of surprises. I used to have a poster with the saying, "Just when I think I know the answer, they change the question!" What seemed like a simple truth yesterday, may be changed or expanded today. I know when I was 18 or 19 years old, I thought I knew everything. How much I know has continued to decrease since then.

Often the most difficult times on the journey have been just such surprises that create opportunities for expansion. It often is where you feel like you have come to a dead end that a door you never knew was there and could not have even imagined, will open. Whether you laugh, cry, or cringe in fear when that dead end comes up will not change the outcome, but it is certainly more pleasant to laugh and it seems to help me see the door more quickly. Yes, the journey is sometimes sad and sometimes fearful and it is important to feel whatever comes up, but it is only a journey and attaching to those emotions can delay moving on. Laughter is like the grease that lets us slide into the next place with grace!

One of the things that I find most humorous is the tendency I have to make vows about what I will always do or never do for the rest of my life. I used to think that it was a sign of good character not to break the vows I made to myself. Since then, I have learned to be wary of making those kinds of vows that continue the path in a linear way into the future. Paths are rarely linear and often take sharp turns in one direction or another. For example, I found myself vowing after being divorced never to marry again. On this Full Moon in May, I will be marrying my partner of 20 years. I know that it is a door opening to something new and that the path has turned in that direction. As I make new vows I am careful not to say never or always and to keep my sense of humor about what is happening in the present.

Moving forward now
To where I do not yet know
Possibilities

Laughing with my life
Humor weaves failures into
Stories of power

If you have comments on these articles or ideas for future topics, call Linda Heron Wind at (585) 924-5620 or send e-mail to LHWind@aol.com.

Page last modified May 6, 2006 by RMC