Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Dear God,

Today I learned again how laughter can rid the soul of unwanted emotional debris. I laughed a lot throughout the day.

I lived life pretty seriously for a quite a while; I thought I needed to. Yet, what I learned is that a greater trust in you leads me to take life a little easier. You showed me that I do not need to react to everything that happens. You helped me clean out emotional residue that had collected in the dark corners of my soul. Like pulling back the curtains allowing the light to shine in, laughter has crept into my cracks removing unnecessary, unwanted feelings. I feel lighter, happier, more in charge of my own life.

This morning we forgot to get instructions on how to use a car topper before we left for Maine. We got exactly two miles before the lid flew up. We forgot to put locks on it. I tied it down. Stop number one. We just got on the highway when we heard an awful whirring sound. I pulled over and realized we forgot to latch the front and the back. Stop number three. Stop number two was buying the locks and putting them on. A few miles later a trucker came up beside me and called out for me to stop. I got out and realized the straps had not been attached to the luggage loops. The carrier was sliding back and forth. I unlatched them, put them through the loops and cinched the straps. Stop number four. Thirty minutes later I saw the carrier going up and down. I got off the highway and pulled into a parking lot. I pulled out the short drawstring that I had used to tie down the carrier before we bought the locks. I looped it up front by the latch and tied it down. I took the second drawstring and tied down one side. Harold went into a tire store and asked for a piece of wire that we used to secure the other side. He wired it down. Stop number five. Now I think I actually stopped one more time but after a couple of times, who counts?

All this is to say that I laughed through the whole first hour of our trip. I am sure we looked positively ridiculous on the highway with a car carrier dancing all over the top of the car. No wonder cars were slowing down behind us. I think we may have only gotten about twenty miles that first hour. When I told my daughter about our experience, she asked, "Mom, on the last stop, did you say to yourself not "What is wrong with this thing?' but rather "What is wrong with us?" I laughed like crazy.

O God,
thank you
for laugher
that clears
the clutter
and cleans
the soul.
Thank you
for the gift!

Love, Andrea