Laughter - Just Do It!

Happy St. Patrick's Day Son!

So son, a sunny good morning to you. I'm sitting, stretched out on the couch looking out the living room window. The sun is bright and beautiful this week and is suppose to continue throughout the week.  We continue to get longer and longer glimpses of warmer and warmer periods of Spring breaking through.

Last week I tried an experiment. I decided I'd get busy in the studio and run some errands and THEN write my blog in the afternoon when dad and I normally have out quiet time for the week.  It didn't work. By the afternoon my mind is abuzz with millions of things I need to do for the week, I'm reading, making cards, working through schedules for the week; thus, I'm not able to concentrate and write. So I'll consider it a learning experience and move on.


Tuesday this week I'm having some friends come over for a craft night and just a good time. We're going to make some cards, have some snacks and laugh. I wish my friends from Springfield were here. All my friends in Springfield would love this group of friends.

Laughter, a common bond.

We could have such a great time together. I've been reconnecting with friends in Springfield and checking in more than I had been. It's so good to talk with all of them and find out what's going on in their lives. For so long now I've been wrapped up in what's happening in my life, and they have been too. You know, the truth of the matter is, even in all of the tough times, our family has been able to share laughter.  If we hadn't, I don't know where we would be today. I grew up with laughter. 

What do you mean you're not laughing?

As far back as I can remember our home growing up was always filled with laughter. Sometimes when I think about growing up and remember family events, because we had a lot of them, I can hear the laughter of my dad and mom.One of my best memories, that always makes me smile and giggle, is the sight of my dad coming up behind my mom while she was working at the kitchen sink, patting her on her butt and that chuckle coming from my dad!

I can remember coming home from school and walking into my grandma's kitchen. Before I even entered the house, I could hear their laughter. My mom and my grandma sitting at the kitchen table in my grandma's first house, corn everywhere as they cut it off the cob for canning, my shoes would stick to the linoleum from the corn juice, sticky floors, and stream from the pressure cooker filling the room and they'd be laughing. Even as I was walking up the walk I could hear the laughter. 

My mom and dad. Laughter abounded.

Your grandpa had a wonderful laugh. Sometimes, without even thinking about it, I can hear grandpa laughing. He loved to laugh. He loved people. He LOVED his kids and grandkids. I can still hear your grandma laughing. All your grandparents loved life and laughter. I wonder, how do people make it in today's world without laughter? Even now, I can look at pictures of you and hear you laughing. I know you're laughing in heaven. I can just see you and grandpa pulling pranks on the angels and rolling with laughter as you wait to see their reaction. Have a great time son. No more pain. I'm so happy for you.


Laughter is a wonderful commodity. It would be a shame not to hare it. Laughter gets us through so much. We, as a family, have always approached life with laughter. 


As I write this blog I just learned that a co-worker's grandmother has passed away. The co-worker is half way around the world from her grandmother.I'm feeling her loss. Even though we weren't half way around the world when you left it, as a mom it sure felt like it. I'm feeling for her right now. It devastated me when my dad and grandparents passed away and I was only a state away and I could get to my family. She is so far away and has to be heartbroken. I lift her, and her family, up to the Father.In the days and weeks to come she too will again find laughter in her life and it will help to heal the hurt. I know from experience, that at some point, when the time is right, even though she doesn't think so now, her laughter will return. The sun will shine and she will again have peace.

If you don't laugh...you need help!

Laughter is a great friendship "binder". I don't know how I would survive in life if I didn't have the gift of laughter. Laughter can defuse so many moments in life. I think the saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is a true statement, or at least the very least, the apple helps. I think an even truer statement would be, "A laugh a day keeps the doctor away".

As I look back over my life and even today. Laughter has been my best medicine. If I look back through times with friends, what did we do the most of? We laughed together. We still do. Through thick and through thin, rough times, happy times, sad times, celebrating times, we laughed together. When you choose to have joy in your life, laughter seems to be a natural follow-up.  My goodness son. When I think back through our lives, we did a lot of laughing. We always found something to laugh about. Even if it was a dumb "knock, knock" joke. I mean really, "How do you know an elephant has been in the refrigerator? By the footprints in the butter." I mean really. What's not to laugh about that? 

Take yours today!

Through all the years, all the changes, all the moves, all the cities, all the states, all the friends, all the family, all the heartache, we managed to find laughter. That has been a constant, solidifying, continuous stream in our everyday lives here on earth. What a legacy to leave; to know you have had true joy and happiness and to pass those gifts forward. You did that! Sure you did! Through all the pain, grief and loss, you left a path of joy and happiness. I hope that someone, someday when I'm gone can say the same about me.


Until then, all my love, mom