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Laughter!! If laughter is the best medicine for what ails us, I should be in rip roaring good health! Lord knows I’ve had plenty to laugh about, especially when it comes to my own life and the crazy things I’ve done.
Who else but me would have thought pouring gasoline down a fence post hole and throwing a match in it would be a good idea. But I had a good reason. There was a snake that went down in that hole and I meant to send that baby on to its reward, just not in my back yard.
Not many people are keen to climb around about twenty feet in the air with no net to catch them. But I did when I worked on getting a greenhouse ready for the spring planting. It helped to pay for two years of college for my oldest son and a new bedroom suite for me. It also assured me, I am afraid of heights.
The rows I laid out weren’t perfect or anywhere near it. But those potatoes vines grew on top of the ground and the potatoes under it just fine. In the process, I found out I wasn’t a very good farmer’s wife.
Who but me would forget to tie the fish basket to the side of the boat? But I did and then watched as the basket with a fish, a nice size fish, slowly sunk to the bottom of Shoal Creek. I tried to tell that man I didn’t want to go run a trout line, but he wouldn’t listen. Guess that might be one reason we got divorced a few years later.
Life can be difficult sometimes but if we don’t keep humor in it, at the appropriate times, then it can get us down. I know, I’ve been there more than a few times in my life.
When people ask me how I’m doing, I always smile and say, “just great!” My theory is, if I tell myself this and others, I can make it true. Sometimes they know I’m stretching the truth a bit. But who wants to hear someone complain?
Five years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In July of that summer my only grandson had been killed in a tragic accident and I was scheduled to have foot surgery. I had to smile to myself, not because there was anything to smile about but what good was being sad going to do. There was definitely no laughing out loud although I was tempted. If I had laughed, my kids would have asked for a psych doctor to check me out while we waited to meet with the oncologist. While I was fortunate enough to have only a lumpectomy and twenty rounds of radiation, others that day were faced with major surgery, many more radiation treatments as well as chemo and some a life shortened. I was blessed, and I didn’t forget to say thank you. Neither did I forget to laugh.
No matter what kind of life altering events we face in our lives, laughter should be a part of our life, the rollicking kind that makes our sides hurt and tears run down our cheeks. If you read the story of Norman Cousins, a writer, who on a trip to Russia was exposed to toxic diesel fumes and multiple occasions for stress due to miscommunications, was diagnosed with a serious immune disorder that rendered him almost incapable of movement. His doctor advised him few recovered from the disorder. But Cousins was determined to find the root cause of the problems. He made some radical decisions for that time, but it worked. One of the things he did was to watch Marx Brothers films and any other comedy series of the day. He survived because he found laughter. He refused the recommended regimen of the time and chose to heal his body with laughter and massive doses of Vitamin C. He recovered in time and went on to live a full life, one he might not have had if he hadn’t learned the secret of laughter.
There will be times of sadness and hurt. But you can find laughter again, the easy smiles and love abounding.
– Barbara Tubbs Hill
Writer, counselor, perennial student and seeker of truth and spirit is an apt description for Barbara. Currently, Barbara is working on her first novel with two more planned for the future. Her first book, “Let’s Talk, What You Don’t Know About Credit Can Hurt You,” was written after fifteen years in a career than spanned collections, credit and mortgage lending. Barbara is glad to have been a part of getting the Indian Mound in Florence listed on the Alabama State Historical Register and soon the National Historical Registry. She lives in Florence AL with her husband Johnnie and two precious rescue dogs; Snookies and Daisy.
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