Laughter

I recently had someone ask me a great question. What is the one thing you couldn't live without doing?

Well, that may be an easy question for you...but for me it's real tough because I like to do so much. I write, perform, paint, read ( a lot), sing, play three instruments, camp, travel, entertain, and on and on it goes.

That one question made me pause, in the midst of the busy, and really think.

And I figured it out.

Laughter.

I could not live without laughter...mine or other peoples laughter.

If every word I said made you laugh, I would talk forever.

I love performing and hearing the response of laughter. It fuels me. To know that I can entertain people for 30 - 45 minutes and take them away from the hussle and flow of life, relieve them momentarily of pain, make them forget the job-arguement-sickness...is a wonderful thing.

So I will keep on writing, telling, performing and laughing.

• Make 'em laugh. Laughter is the best medicine.
• Laugh as much as you breath and love as long as you live.
• The human race really only has one effective weapon, and that is laughter.
• Nothing shows a mans character more than what he laughs at.
• The earth laughs in flowers.
• A laugh is a smile that bursts.
• Laughter is the shock absorber that eases the blows of life.
• What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
• Laughter is an instant vacation.

The Little Voices...

I was talking to a reporter the other day. She was interviewing me and asked how I get the ideas for my stories. I proceeded to tell her that I keep a notebook by my side at all times. I told her that there is a constant flow of thoughts in my head, mostly humorous, that I try and keep at bay when I am doing the daily routine of life. But sometimes, a really good one just pops to the front and I jot it down in my notebook. When I take time to sit down and allow those thoughts to come to the forefront, I have more ideas than I have time to work into stories.

She was quiet for a minute and then I realized that she probably thought I sounded a little...uh, well...nuts.

But if you are an artist or a writer, then you understand. It's not little voices or anything like that. It is just the glaring reality of life, filtered through a creative eye, and then bounced around on the facets of a creative mind and a wild imagination.

I love it.

The Tale is Wiser....

The tale is usually wiser than the teller.

Boy isn't that the truth. The tales I usually hear or tell contain a lot more wisdom in one tiny sentence than what I have in my whole head. The tale usually conveys a deep truth in a way that is easy to swallow. The listener takes in the story, rolls it around in their mind, pulls out the truth, has an epiphany and is suddenly inspired to make a change in their thinking or behavior.

How wise the tale is. We usually shout the truth in anger, hurling it like a verbal fist and then expect the recipient to thank us and change - hopefully making our life easier.

We usually speak truth out of selfishness and hurt.
Stories speak truth with no conditions, asking nothing in return.

We have a lot to learn from these spun tales.