"Life's too important to be taken seriously".
A very special friend taught this lesson to me many years ago, at a time when I couldn't seem to find anything to smile about. It was all I could do to drag my cross along and I heard nothing but jeers from the world around me. Life was rotten and it wasn't going to get any better.
My friend dealt with crisis on a daily basis, the first time I sat down in her office and watched her work I thought she was nuts! Fielding problem after problem she would hang up the phone, sit back and burst into laughter. This woman could find humor in almost any situation.
It was slow coming but I began to see that there is more than one way to look at life. I've talked about perception before and it can make all the difference. A sense of humor can carry us through almost anything and make the trip a lot more endurable.
Michael J. Fox's kids call him "Shaky Dad". There has to be humor in his home dealing with Parkinson's Disease. The other day my son put a piece of sandpaper in my hand then placed my hand on a board. He said I was almost as good as his Sears beltsander.. Since I've lost my sense of balance I tell people I'm training for the olympics because several of the races have "staggered" starts.
Emotions can be contiguous, but experts tell me negative feelings are much easier to pass on than positive feelings. I"m not sure why we have a tendency to swing over to gloom and doom so easily, but I guess it"s the nature of the beast. If it takes a little more effort to be happy than sad, I"m just guessing, but think the extra effort will turn out a better pie.
One thing we can do is try to surround ourselves with positive people. Leave Chicken Little out in the woods with Eeyore. Most important is to work on the attitude of that person who is always with us. If we continuously beat ourselves up itıs going to be tough to change. It used to be, the first thoughts through my head when I made a mistake were, "John, you stupid idiot!. It took a conscious effort to change this habit and begin treating myself like a friend. Then I went another step and not only quit critisizing myself but learned to
laugh at my screw-ups.
There isn't much in life that needs to be taken seriously. Those people prone to road-rage haven't learned it yet, nor the people who go over the edge because of a bad hair day. As I've said in past columns, about other subjects, "It doesn't matte". Very little really does. There's a saying I'm fond of, "A man is as big as the things that bother him.". If we work at it, we can become giants and a whole lot happier.
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