Umbrella Smiles
Years ago, as a young teenage girl, I went to church with my three sisters on a Saturday evening. The long wooden pew in front of us was empty inside the huge cathedral size church. The organist was playing softly as we waited for the service to begin. Just as the music stops, and it’s ever so quiet in this large church, I glance down and happen to notice my shoelace is undone. I bend over to tie my shoe and as I reach for my shoelace I miss judge the clearance for my head. I can still hear the ever so loud bonk of my forehead on the empty wooden pew in front of us. It wasn’t a light gentle feminine tap. Oh no, the cracking sound of the impact of my skull on this long empty wooden pew bounced off the walls of the enormous church! Suddenly all eyes, from every direction, looked our way and the embarrassment of the entire situation gave me the giggles. I couldn’t control myself and, like with most teenage girls, it was contagious. Giggle fever caught on and soon all four of us were giggling uncontrollably. I had tears streaming down my face. I would begin to gain composure and someone would give me the look and it would begin again. I had to exit the church at one point to pull myself together.
When
was the last time you had a good laugh?
I’m not talking a smile and a slight giggle. I’m talking the toss your
head back, beating on the table, tears streaming down your face, the deep in
your belly that you almost pee your pants, kind of laugh! If it’s been awhile you need to change
that. Recently I spent the weekend with
my family. Much of that time was spent
in laughter and it was good. The joy and
intimacy resulting from a lifetime of history gives each of us the insight to
appreciate how the other responds to our shared story. It’s priceless. We can still make each other laugh about
silly things, like bonking our heads on empty church pews, due to our shared
DNA and decades of sisterly togetherness.
Family time is good for the soul and so is laughter. Laughter is proof that life goes on after
hardship. Laughter with family and
friends is healing. Laughter truly is
the best medicine, like the saying goes.
It’s an instant vacation. It’s
the language of the soul. It’s God’s
blessing.
A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build
up. A time to cry and a time to
laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. ~Ecclesiastes 3: 2-4
One of
the greatest stress relievers God has given us is laughter. Laughter restores what stress and the
pressures of life takes out. It is like
taking medicine for it releases healing in our systems. Laughter decreases stress hormones, boosts our immune system and promotes a sense of well-being. It also
acts as a natural pain reliever. There’s
nothing like an uncontrollable smile and a burst of genuine laughter to snap
you out of a funk. Proverbs 17:22 says,
“A happy heart is like a good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing.” It’s important to take time to laugh and to
take time to play. There is healing
power in laughter. Everyday find
something to laugh about, especially laugh at yourself. Sometimes I'm the only person who finds my own
jokes funny and that’s okay, except for Dan. Dan makes me laugh and I can always count on him to laugh at my jokes, even the not so funny ones.
There’s
scientific research to back this up. Researchers
at California’s Loma Linda University did a study to evaluate the impact on
stress and short-term memory on adults using comic
relief. One group sat quietly and the
other watched funny videos. The funny
video group improved 23% more than the other group on memory recall and also
had considerably lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. University of Maryland
published a study that found laughter can also protect against heart disease. Another study that truly caught my attention
is from Vanderbilt University. That study
estimates a good hearty laugh burns up to 40 calories! (I need to find a way to log that into
Myfitnesspal!) Perhaps there is truth to the saying that you laughed your butt off. Could it be true? In
the 2015 documentary, Laugh Out Loud, the laughter researcher, Robert Provine,
said, “Until the scientists work out all the details, get in all the laughter
that you can!”
“We're going to laugh about this someday” is a line often used when you’re in the
midst of a humiliating or embarrassing situation.
I’ve used this line too many times then I dare to count! If you can’t laugh at yourself who can
you laugh at? I think it’s a matter of
lightening up and giving yourself permission to not take life, or yourself, too
seriously. You don’t have to be in a
good mood all the time; I don’t think that’s humanly possible. But it is important to find something, at
least once a day, to have a good belly laugh about. Laughter
allows us to temporarily step outside of ourselves and touch that field of
awareness that is truly in the moment.
There
was a time I went through a red lipstick and red false fingernail phase. I was out to lunch with a group of my girl
friends sporting my freshly glued on false nails, feeling snazzy. We get up to leave and I put something into
my pocket. Somehow I manage to catch
the lip of my pocket under the base of one of my long false nails which sends it
catapulting into the air. It was as if I
was watching it happen in slow motion.
It twirled and twirled finding it’s way all the way over to dead center of the table in the booth of
the people sitting behind us. I swiftly went over to their table, snatch the long red fingernail from the center and softly exclaim, “Excuse me but this is mine. Thank you.”
We quickly make an exit. I was
mortified and embarrassed but couldn't go without my nail. We were barely out in the parking lot when
my friends were bent over with laughter and already imitating
me. “Excuse me but this is mine…”
"Someday I’ll laugh about this", I thought. And I did.
"Someday I’ll laugh about this", I thought. And I did.
Early
in my career I was eating a breakfast parfait at my desk when the big wig boss
was coming around to say good morning to everyone in our cubicles. I loved this blueberry yogurt granola parfait
from my favorite restaurant. I would
treat myself to one every Friday morning, bringing one to work and thoroughly enjoy it as I started my day at my desk. This particular Friday was no
exception. The blueberries were
exceptionally huge this day and I was loving every bite of it. The boss stood there and smiled at me
politely greeting me for the morning and asked how everything was. I greeted him with a huge smile and said everything was
great! I found it odd that he sort of
laughed, smiled back, told me to have a nice Friday and swiftly walked
away. A few moments later I felt
something odd in my mouth and pulled out a mirror. To my horror of utter embarrassment I smiled
into the mirror to notice that a skin of one of the huge blueberries managed to
wrap itself around my big front tooth! I
looked like I lost a tooth when I smiled!
I was mortified at that moment but thought, “Someday, I’m going to laugh about this.” And I did.
I was mortified at that moment but thought, “Someday, I’m going to laugh about this.” And I did.
Erma
Bombeck said, “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy
and tragedy, humor and hurt.” My Dad had
a great sense of humor and was still cracking jokes up until the very end. I admire him for that. Last weekend one of the biggest laughs we had
as a family was listening to my little sister, her husband and son relive the
panicked moments when they discovered their garage was on fire in the middle of
the night. What happened was horrific
but by the grace of God they all escaped unharmed. We sure did laugh so hard as each recounted
the stories of the sheer panic that ensued during that ordeal. Humor helps us heal. Humor helps us deal with life. I know my family is healing from the loss of my Dad. I watched it this past weekend. There was abundant joy each day with family and with friends. I could feel Dad with us. I could feel his smile and I could hear his laughter.
There is a song that was written in 1927 and later recorded by Bing Crosby in 1957. “Let a smile be your umbrella.” The human smile and humor is powerful. Smile at a baby and watch what happens. The American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, “Humor is a prelude to faith and laughter is the beginning of prayer.” I know that life is hard. Healing is hard. Many blog readers, right now, are suffering from a loss of a loved one, recovering from painful addictions and many are going through difficult times. There is healing in laughter. We have a choice. We can continue to be a “grown-up” and let all of life’s frustrations and difficulties get us down or we can introduce some levity into even the toughest of moments. Sometimes it’s our sense of humor that will be the thing that gets us through those difficult times. There is healing in the rain and we need to let our smile be our umbrella.
There is a song that was written in 1927 and later recorded by Bing Crosby in 1957. “Let a smile be your umbrella.” The human smile and humor is powerful. Smile at a baby and watch what happens. The American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, “Humor is a prelude to faith and laughter is the beginning of prayer.” I know that life is hard. Healing is hard. Many blog readers, right now, are suffering from a loss of a loved one, recovering from painful addictions and many are going through difficult times. There is healing in laughter. We have a choice. We can continue to be a “grown-up” and let all of life’s frustrations and difficulties get us down or we can introduce some levity into even the toughest of moments. Sometimes it’s our sense of humor that will be the thing that gets us through those difficult times. There is healing in the rain and we need to let our smile be our umbrella.
“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” — Victor Borge
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