Reece Gardner: The importance of laughter
Well, Folks, we have experienced yet another election, which in some areas is still not totally over, but it hopefully will be resolved soon. President Trump has worked tirelessly, reaching out in person to tens of thousands of very enthusiastic audiences across the country, sometimes conducting as many as five rallies in one day.
The involvement of the PEOPLE in this campaign has been gigantic and history-making. I will have more about this in next week's column, but for today I just want to share with you the importance of looking on the bright side of life's events and laughing at the world. Of all living creatures only we have the gift of laughter, and it's ours to use whenever we choose. So I'll cultivate the habit of laughter. I'll smile, and my digestion will improve. I'll chuckle, and my burdens will be lightened. I'll laugh, and my life will be lengthened. That's the great secret of long life, and now it's mine.
And most important of all, and sometimes the most difficult of all, I will laugh at myself. We do tend to be rather tiresome and tiring when we take ourselves TOO seriously. My ultra-concern for today, whatever it might be, is going to seem foolish just five years from now. I won't even remember what it was. And what can possibly take place between now and tomorrow's sunset that won't seem insignificant in the river of centuries? And how can I continue to laugh at the world?
Four words that I have trained myself to say have become a habit so strong that they immediately come into my mind anytime good humor threatens to leave me. These are not new words. In fact they've been passed down through the ages, and yet they carry me through every adversity and maintain my life in balance. These words are, "This Too Shall Pass." And I will try not to wait until tomorrow to laugh, nor to fret about whether I laughed enough yesterday. Because yesterday is gone, it is history, it isn't coming back.
The one benefit you and I can derive from yesterday is to recognize the importance of living this day, each day, in a way so that when the day is gone we can look back on it without regret. We can say, "Yesterday I didn't criticize, condemn, or complain; Yesterday I was a good listener to someone who needed to pour out his heart filled with frustration and despair, and as a result of my being a good listener, he was able to hold his head a little higher and walk a little more confidently along the way.
Yesterday, I made somebody feel important by reminding him that he was a walking, talking, living, breathing miracle, born in the image of God and bound for the Promised Land." And so far as tomorrow is concerned, there is no such thing. If tomorrow ever gets here for us - which it may or may not - but if it does it will be TODAY when it does. So the great wisdom of the ages is "This is the day the Lord has made, and we can rejoice and be glad in it!" I will now close on a philosophical note. In this life, we are all on a journey.
Along the way we encounter mountains and valleys, rivers and plains, crowded highways and lonely roads, highs and lows, joys and sorrows, conflict and loss, heartache and solitude. And while we don't know what our future holds, WE DO KNOW WHO HOLDS THE FUTURE.
Have a WONDROUS day!
