The phone rang while I was laboring over a piece of writing. Usually I ignore the interruption when working, but the children were in school and my mommy vibe automatically started to tingle.
What if it was an emergency? The visions a mother can conjure up in a moment of what if… well, they can be ugly.
“Is Alex there?”
“No, Alex doesn’t live here anymore.” I said smiling.
“Since when?”
“Didn’t he tell you? He was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and decided to move to Australia.”
“He what the what?” the man said incredulously.
Obviously unfamiliar with Judith Viorst’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, the caller did not get my obtuse joke. He hit a sudden pause in the middle of his freight train of words.
“Wait, you’re kidding right?” he said.
“Yes I am,” I continued to smile. “I think you dialed the wrong number.”
Several explicatives were launched by the caller before the rattle of the receiver being slammed into the cradle echoed in my ear.
Fortunately, I found humor in the phone call rather than disappointment at being treated so rudely. Hopefully the caller was able to reach Alex, and perhaps they had a chuckle later.
I did.
That’s the point.
We get so bogged down with life happening, deadlines, and must do’s that a bit of diversion must be scheduled into each of our days. Humor is one way our family copes with the healthy dose of life’s hiccups.
Loud laughter and joyful hearts are just another part of our daily routine. Some days I find it harder than others to lose myself in the laughter, but if Sean can’t break my funny bone with his quips, then he’ll hold me down and tickle me until I burst with giggles. Sometimes he even recruits the children to his team.
Numerous studies show that laughter enhances respiration, reduces stress, stimulates the brain and improves overall blood flow. Laughter is the life tonic, essential to us all. It’s good and good for you.
Take a break from reality and embrace the nonsense talk or tell a bad knock knock joke. Go to You Tube or act absurd and nutty doing the chicken dance or belching the alphabet impressively for your children. Whatever you do to make your loved ones smile, make it no less a daily habit than brushing your teeth.
What does your family do to promote happiness and laughter?
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With the often sad nature of Alzheimer’s affecting my mother, who lives with my husband and I, we’ve found humor to be our #1 friend in lifting spirits around here. Sometimes it’s a goofy play on words or humorously interpreting a cat’s body language or meows. (One of our cats really can have a WTF? look.) Greg has a special knack for making my mom smile with his fake and funny army drill sergeant insistence that she get a man, pull some weeds, or stop her rabid cleaning. Of course, going to YouTube and watching Greg dance to the Gummy Bear song is priceless as well.
That was great. I added The Bloggess to my RSS list because whenever I need a laugh I can head over to her blog…
Jim Gaudet´s last blog post..YouTube Ninjas
Jim: Yes the Bloggess is outrageously funny, but not appropriate reading material for modeling when around the children. She articulates things that people may think in their
mind, but can’t say out loud. If you are hankering for adult, off color, out of the box humor our Houston gal has lots of banter.
cindy platt´s last blog post..You are a Writer
That was a great story. I loved your sense of humor with the guy on the phone. Too bad he didn’t have one.
For humor my husband and I love stupid puns. Like we’ll be at the aquarium and say things like, “Honey, you otter come over here and see this.” Or, “Are you just fishing for compliments?” Har, har, har.
He and his grown children love to intersperse their everyday conversation with lines from movies. I usually don’t get their jokes because I have not seen every movie in the world the way they have. Most often they quote Monty Python or Star Wars. “These are not the droids you are looking for.”
Randi´s last blog post..My Bucket List
I couldn’t read this post at first, Cindy, for gazing at this beautiful rainbow. May I use it sometime?
Then I read it and realised the universe is battering me over the head with good advice today from all my favourite people and blogs. This is a timely post for me as I’ve just had an incident with my teenage daughter. It reminded me how much easier it was to diffuse situations with humour when the kids were younger and how I should try harder now.
Maybe my daughter and I could surf for hilarious YouTube videos together regularly. I’ll be checking out the Blogess later, too; Dave W is my go to guy for a good laugh at the moment.
We introduced the kids to our collection of Friends videos last month and we all looked forward to a regular half and hour laugh in. Like Randi, we enjoy using lines from films and shows, even doing the accents to fit in with something we’re doing. (It’s not the first tme I’ve been given advice in Yoda’s voice!)
Thanks, Cindy.
janice´s last blog post..Back Up, Pass On…
Yes, sorry. I forgot about the audience for this blog.
Jim Gaudet´s last blog post..Costa Rica Spanish
OH, I do need to laugh more…I was just born so intense and I don’t need to die so intense…
Loved your response on the phone….and the book…
Thank you
Patricia´s last blog post..Thinking About My Dad
Hmm, thought-provoking post, Cindy. I wish my family had done something like this more when I was growing up. It sure would have improved things!
-Frank
Frank Marcopolos´s last blog post..Podcast Length Poll