Stress Fractures; Laughter Helps

We had forgotten how to laugh.

We had forgotten what it looked like -- tears leaking from crinkled eyes and smiles stretching across happy faces and shoulders shaking in mirth.   Thighs slapped and torsos rocking and faces animated and hands flapping.  

We had forgotten what it sounded like -- exploding guffaws and sporadic cackles and spontaneous roars from the belly up. Giggling and tittering and hooting and whooping.

We had forgotten what it felt like to share the silly and celebrate the fun and howl at the hilarious and respond to infectious joy.

Stressed, we had forgotten how to laugh. But now we were, and it felt really good.

One of my sisters recently suffered a stress fracture in her ankle, which will curtail her running and change the way she exercises. The cracked bone will fracture her routines for a while. My sister is making the best of it, acknowledging the importance of Godly perspective over loss of running. That’s what she does.

But her injury reminded me that stress can fracture our lives, and that one side effect of a fractured life caused by stress is loss of laughter.

Stress fractures; that’s what it does.  But laughter helps; that’s what it does.

Barbara Johnson once said, “Laughter is like changing a baby’s diaper – it doesn’t permanently solve any problems, but it makes things more acceptable for a while.”

In Genesis 21:6, after a particularly stressful time in her life, Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." (NIV). God blessed Sarah with laughter.  Laughter is a blessing that shares, and the only side effect is streaked mascara!

So today, I’m thanking God for the gift of laughter, a blessing which spreads more mere words.

Psalm 126 The Message

^1-3 It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,
    when God returned Zion’s exiles.
We laughed, we sang,
    we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
We were the talk of the nations—
    “God was wonderful to them!”
God was wonderful to us;
    we are one happy people.

^4-6 And now, God, do it again—
    bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
So those who planted their crops in despair
    will shout hurrahs at the harvest,
So those who went off with heavy hearts
    will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.

 And for a hoot and a holler, enjoy reading "The First Time is Always the Worst" by Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant, winner of 2003 Erma Bombeck Humor Writing Award Winning Piece. The link is found on my blog titled "For women who want to laugh out loud, not just say LOL!"

Excerpt:  "The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That’s what happened to me..."