TAKE TIME TO LAUGH

We are serious. Everything around us is serious, work, our commitments, world issues and the list goes on and on. We know and accept this. But now…It’s time to laugh.

When we take ourselves too seriously we tend to become obsessed. We start to focus on the negative aspects in ourselves and in the world around us.   Before long, we are consumed. Any good opportunity that presents itself becomes a victim to the “yes, but” mentality. Our views of all of the great moments, people and opportunities become tainted. Each “yes, but” chips away at our natural happiness. Our laughter becomes hollow. The joy never reaches our eyes because we no longer believe that good things are truly possible.

I’ll take a step back. Being serious is important. But it needs to be balanced with joy.  There are many things that make me happy. One of them, is, laughing. I love to laugh. Thankfully I have a healthy sense of self, thus allowing me to take great pleasure in laughing at myself. So for those of you who can’t find the humour in anything, I will provide a fact about myself that might make you chuckle.

Bike riding and Giselle – Actually, there is no such thing.

Many years ago I took a trip to Holland.  Everyone there rode bikes.  A few days into the visit, one of my newfound friends, lent me a bicycle: ten speed (possibly), thin wheeled, good looking and shiny. I steadied myself, swung my leg over, put my feet on the pedals and started to ride baby! Oh wait…that’s what everyone else did.  I do not believe my feet had a chance to touch the pedals before the bike and I were kissing the ground. It was one of those, slow motion, “oh no…oh no…” type of falls.

I would not be deterred. I got right back on and boom! Down I was. By the fourth or fifth time, my good friend Paula, her cousins, passers by and I am sure all spy government agencies, were laughing hysterically.  And so was I. Oh they tried to teach me, but it just wouldn’t take.  In the end I would double with Paula or one of her cousins.  On a side note, I visited at least three areas in Holland. And in each city, they would ask me to ride a bike. Weird eh?

And if you were wondering, I have the awesome ability to fall epically when on roller blades, skateboards, snowboards, skis, and scooters.  But I can do a cartwheel, a handstand and the running man! BOOM!