Just When I Thought...

Just when I thought

Things were going well, I was struck with ill health

Life had leveled out, there were bumps in the road

Misery could take no more company, another load was dumped on me

Things couldn’t get any worse, they did…

How often have you found yourself held captive by downers such as these? How frequently have you heard yourself drawing a picture of life that is nothing but gloom and doom? How often have you given in to the tricks of despair and defeat? And, if you have, what sort of plan did you have for overcoming such anguish, for delivering yourself from such pits?

I have a friend who deals with his depression by whistling. One of his favorite tunes is
“Whistle a Happy Tune.” I know someone else who flips through old New Yorker magazines, just for the cartoons. I know others whose favorite pastime is Laurel and Hardy movies.

Laughter is the cure. That’s why it is so desirable to associate with those who generate laughter, whose disposition is motivated by humor, whose ability to create distraction from the troublesome is to get others to laugh.

Despondency is a swamp into which it is easy to find one’s way, but awfully difficult to discover the exit. Don’t go there or don’t go any further in than you can avoid. Days of despair accumulate and rob you of your better self. They prevent you from giving your joy away and thus reducing the pain of dejection.

Most of the time, when I am with folk I know well, I usually attempt to create some frivolous verbal and deliciously ribald fun. I find it to be contagious. One witty remark births another and so on. Before one knows it, the whole room is caught up in hilarious exchanges. There is nothing wrong with that, so long as it is not done at the expense of anyone present.

When you think life has dumped on you, find some way to remove the load by replacing it with the lightness of laughter.