Life is Too Serious to Take it Serious...

This past weekend my mom and I went to hear Vicki Lawrence speak at an event geared to women and the threat of heart disease. I am a little young to remember too much of Vicki's career but I do remember watching episodes of "Momma's Family" and I thought Momma was hysterically funny. I didn't want her as my own mother but I sure wanted to know someone like her in my neighborhood.

Vicki talked a lot about her career..."The Carol Burnett Show"...and many other projects she was a part of. She also talked about how heart disease had been a part of her family in many ways.

The entire talk was great and I enjoyed it very much but one part really resonated with me. Vicki talked about going through a rough depression. During this time she forgot how to laugh according to her. She said it took years (and a black lab) to pull her out of it.

She then talked about how Carol Burnett said often "life is too serious to take it serious." Now that right there stopped me in my tracks.

I take life very seriously. I know how to laugh and don't get me wrong...I love to laugh. But in the business world I take things very seriously...too seriously. I let a lot of little things eat away at me. I let small negative comments consume me. I worry. I fret. I frown a lot.

I started getting grey hair way too early in life for goodness sake!

After hearing Vicki say that life is too serious to take is serious...I began to think...you know she is right! Of course there are serious things in life that need to be taken care of...they need the proper attention...but everything in life can be handled with a smile.

I have seen many friends and family members laugh at funerals...in hospital rooms...and all sorts of sad places...and they do so because laughter is sometimes the best medicine.

This business I am in can get a little nutty at times...too nutty on some occasions. But the fact is...most of the time...it is never life or death. Of course it is a business that provides for my family and many others and I don't want to take it too lightly...but I can lighten up a little.

I plan to smile more...to laugh more...to look for the glass half full more...to see the rainbows more (that is if it ever does rain again!)...to look for the good in people more.

I know that often what we look for is what we find...so I want to look for joy in life! And who knows...I just might find I have more of it than I even realized!