Find Your Fun

Humor carries me through many trials in my life. I have a gift for finding the funny even in the worst situations. It seems that my humor is all well and good, as long as the situations are mine and not yours.

I am learning to work within those parameters, but it is not always easy. Sometimes the situations are so humorous despite their seriousness that I have to work NOT to laugh.

Doctor walks by the empty day surgery room where I am waiting for my husband. He looks in and asks, “Already gone?” I’m still overwhelmed by all the things that I want to say in response but I managed simply to smile at that moment and instead am giggling inside.

Friend sees you at the hospital emergency room and asks with all the seriousness known to man, “not feeling well?”

Policeman pulls up to the crunched minivan and asks, “Were you hit?”

Okay, maybe these are TOO easy, but they happened and I found something in each of the moments to smile about. Maybe that is the reason that I hold on to joy so tightly. I WANT to find the fun and so I do.

Want to find your fun?

1. Rent Blue Collar Comedy movies or any of Bill Engvall comedy routines. He will help you see the irony and humor in the normal statements we all make.

2. Be aware of the people around you but not confined by their presence. I had a friend whose husband was in the ICU after a severe car wreck. Despite the solemn feel of the waiting room, she still found moments to laugh (softly).

3. Bring a friend. The best way to laugh is to have someone with you that enjoys laughing as much as you do. I had a friend in the delivery room with me while I was getting prepped for delivery of my third child. The laughter definitely made the delivery much easier – although I DO NOT recommend laughing during a contraction.

4. Understand the heart of the situation. Medical issues rarely make me nervous. My grandfather was a doctor, two of my aunts are nurses, my uncle is a surgeon and my brother is a doctor. I may not enjoy the setting, but I understand it on a basic level. That comforts gives me room to laugh.

No matter what you face, you can find a moment to laugh a little. Even tears have been known to make room for a chuckle. It may take practice, but once you find your fun you will wonder how you ever survived without it.