have you laughed with someone today?
—
“a wonderful thing about true laughter
is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.”
-john cleese
the early days of laugh yoga.
—
i recently received an email
from a local group looking for members
(some of you may remember the ventriloquist’s group who tried to recruit me?)
well, this group is into laughter yoga therapy.
all i could think of was the memory
of my mother in assisted living
one of the only verbal (and opinionated)
people in her group.
one day when i was visiting
a therapist came in
telling them they were going to try a new thing:
laugh yoga therapy
she rolled her eyes but went along
once it was finished they asked her what she thought of it
her response:
“that was the stupidest thing i’ve ever done.”
i’m not sure it had quite the effect on her that they’d hoped for
but her comment gave more than one of us a very good laugh.
—
The Concept of Laughter Yoga is based on the scientific fact that the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter~ Everyone wants health and happiness in their lives. But instead they are getting stressed out , depressed, getting less sleep, more negative thoughts and feeling isolated. Does this sound like you? Are you someone who wants to move on and bring more laughter and joy into…
—
“if people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.”
-ludwig wittgenstein
—
image credit: wnyc
met up with my bookclub
for a late holiday brunch
in one of my favorite places
with
some of my favorite people
lots of bad gifts
beautiful food
morning drinks
strong coffee
live jazz
a pinata
and
a full morning of laughter.
a couple of people even read the book.
“laughter is an instant vacation.”
-milton berle
as the snowfall arrives
there is a soft quiet
a world of white outside
while inside
the cottage is filled with color
the center of the snow globe
i’m clearly drawn to whimsical animal art
and yes,
that is the wing of a peacock kite you see in the upper left corner.
—
“laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.”
-victor hugo
(not my sister but you get the idea)
—
my sister, p.
recently shared the following story
about her hair misadventure
and as sympathetic as i was
i could not stop laughing.
and could totally identify.
must have been nervous laughter
and gratitude that it wasn’t me.
—
p. had gone to have her hair cut and styled
the very adept stylist easily cut it and blew it dry
with just a round brush
and
it emerged
into a full and lovely natural style.
the next day
my sister decided that she could certainly do the same
so she armed herself with a blow dryer and big round brush
and had at it.
only –
the brush got stuck
very stuck
absolutely stuck
tangled in both directions
and it was immovable.
it was so bad
that she thought her only option
would be to cut it out
so she called the salon
explained the situation
they told her to come in for help
she drove through her small town
with the big round brush
still stuck on the side of her head
parked her car
walked down the sidewalk
past the local businesses and people on the street
with it still stuck on the side of her head
and into the salon once more.
not surprisingly
they guessed her identity the moment she walked in
the salon was very busy
but not so busy that the staff and their customers
did not have time to guffaw and laugh out loud
unable to restrain themselves
people tried not to make eye contact
they walked her through the salon to the very back
where the staff took turns working on it
in between clients
until it eventually
was worked off of her head
one hair at a time.
i totally get this.
—
“so many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter.”
-gordon w. allport
—
image credit: google images
i love her final gesture
and it made me give pause –
if i were to go today
i would leave behind the following things for others to enjoy:
$7.oo, a sock monkey, photographs, glitter, collage projects, letters and books.
i hope there is no fighting over the monkey.
—
“laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.”
-oscar wilde
—
credits: getty images, mental floss