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
wok racing.
one way for non-skiers
to enjoy winter sports.
in germany
each march
a mix of
b-list celebrities
olympians
and
3 million tv viewers
share in this great event.
racers
sit in woks
strap ladles
to their feet
and
speed
downhill
at speeds of
more than
60 mph.
in 2014
members of
the jamaican bobsled team
took first prize.
—
credits: mzungovolunteers.org, reddit.com, mental floss, zazzle.com
spent the afternoon at
the rogers centre
in canada
where the
baseball opened with
the official roof report –
‘the roof is open’
the game began
and we
watched our detroit tigers
get mowed over
by the toronto blue jays
such a game (15-1)
where
our outfielder even
lost track of
how many outs there were
and forgot to throw the ball back
toronto fans threw out hats
when their player hit 3 home runs
all in the same game
and
hockey and baseball
blurred lines
in the old hockey tradition
of the hat trick
then
every opposing starter
got at least on base
giving us the chance
to see their entire roster
all in one game
but the staff and the local fans
were very friendly
except for the guy
who impounded
our piñata head mascot
kind of a chicken
who was meant to be a tiger
(a chi-ger)
upon entering the stadium
lest i possibly wear it
and conceal my identity
but we decided to shake it all off
and
embrace the huge loss of this game
by enjoying the town
with fans from both sides
and
our pinata
came right along with us
as we met
a rickshaw driver
a man with a chicken hat
( a kindred spirit who grew up in my hometown)
a street singer with a bag on his head
a sweaty spiderman
and a band
playing american and canadian covers
so we danced a lot
and passed the piñata on to the band
but upon returning to our hotel
i couldn’t exactly remember
my hotel room number
except for the last two digits
which caused a bit of a logistical issue
so i visited a few floors
on the elevator that only moved
in response to an electronic key swipe
(who knew?)
saw a lot of our beautiful hotel
made friends with the front desk
who made a few phone calls
to my fellow travelers
who mostly had their phones shut off
in this
faraway and friendly foreign land
and
finally got back into my room
where i soon after
got locked in the glass shower
for a while
then
relaxed and drifted off to sleep
in my pillowy bed
until there was
a 3am fire alarm (false)
but it was one great day
leading into the next
and
there certainly was a lot of laughter
i’d say there were
at least
3 major bouts of laughter
all in the same day.
and
that’s a hat trick.
—
‘that’s the beauty of sport.
sometimes you laugh,
sometimes you cry.’
– joseph gradual