Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Dearest God,

Laughter is a cleanser of the soul. Sometimes I laugh so hard, I can feel my liver jiggling!

I have a reputation for being a klutz. At least that’s what my children call me. I’ve had a pencil stuck in my toe, a cross that fell on me and I skidded on the only grape on the floor at Kroger’s. To save a forest, I patted a fire down with dirt and my bare hands. (It all occurred when we were burning our sins, little slips of paper with our sins written on them, and one of our youth blew into the fire.) I had to go to the hospital because my hand and arm were swelling. I stumbled on a tiny rock in the church parking lot, fell and broke my foot in three places. I could go on, but you know me already.

Tonight I didn’t injure myself, but while pulling a fan down from the closet, I got my blouse button stuck in the fan. I tugged and pulled, trying to free myself. I was desperate because I had to go to the bathroom. Finally, I just had to go to the bathroom holding the fan. All the time I mumbled to myself, “I’m going to the bathroom holding a fan. I’m going to the bathroom holding a fan.” I was laughing so hard trying to care of matters that tears streamed down my face.

Minutes later I was freed from my fan when a friend was able to move the button sideways and push it back through, But not, of course, until she and her friend had laughed their heads off first. Just minutes earlier we had laughed about my grape incident. When I appeared at the door stuck to a fan, they guffawed, probably disrupting the peaceful sleep of the residents on the floor.

If there were any cobwebs on my soul, they were shaken. They couldn’t have hung on during the hysteria. I’m clean as a whistle now.

Life’s little situations can be opportunities for disappointment, disgust, anger and more. But sometimes, sometimes laughter is the best medicine. You have given me the capacity at times to laugh at myself. I can be a very funny person especially when I get myself into crazy situations. And when I start laughing, I can cause a whole room to erupt into laughter.

Tonight’s situation reminded me once again that life is not about being upset when things don’t go my way. It is about taking life as it comes, being willing to go with the flow, to stop, smell the flowers and ponder how it is that crazy things happen. And be thankful for the ability to laugh…really hard!

God of surprises,
you never cease
to amaze me.
You do
throw a wrench
into my life
on occasion
and I am certain
that you sit back,
waiting
to see
what I will do,
how I will react.
When I become
way too serious
about life,
you throw in
a grape, a cross,
a pebble, a fan,
and you say
to me,
“Lighten up, Sweetie.
I’ve got things
under control."
And so I laugh
at myself,
real hard sometimes
and I realize
how close
you are.
And I give thanks.

Loving you, Andrea