Eventually it will be funny.
There are so many laughable things that happen during life.
Of course they may not be humorous at the time, but eventually they are funny.
I remember my father as a jovial man and raising 10 kids could not be an easy task. (Yup, that’s right, I’m from a family of ten kids. I’m the eighth one.) Although he had to often be stern and serious, you could see under it all he had a twinkle in his eye.
He used to whistle around the house when he came home from work.
Sometimes when one of us got in trouble, he would ask us, “Do you see the humor in this?” Although technically we were supposed to be getting scolded, I always felt as if he, in fact, did see the humor in the situation.
Once when I was a teenager, I snuck out of the house to hang out with a friend. Not much happened. She was a neighbor girl and we ended up just walking around the block a couple of times before we got bored and both went home.
When I came back, I climbed onto the roof to sneak into my bedroom window. But getting up to the window, I found it locked! What? I was in disbelief. How could the window be locked? Did it latch itself when I closed it? No, I was careful to leave it slightly open. Perplexed, my mind raced to figure out how I was going to get back into the locked house.
That is when I heard my dad coming around the corner. “What are you doing up there young lady?!” he bellowed.
No, this can’t be! I was SO busted.
“Get down here right now!” Clearly he heard me sneak out and locked the window before I could get back in undetected.
Shaking like a leaf, I climbed down the roof and with my head hung low, marched into the house. As I made my way up to my room, my father said, “Your punishment will be given to you in the morning.” Then he went into his room and closed the door.
No way. I was tormented imagining all the possible punishments that awaited me. Oh, what a long night this was going to be.
In my bed staring up at the ceiling, the entire house was quiet except for one sound. My dad laughing in the other room.
What? I was incredulous! This was not fair that my suffering was such a source of amusement to him.
But you see, after raising so many kids, this little episode was actually no big deal compared to the antics and trouble he had already seen. I am sure the look on my face and the sharp shocked intake of breath when I realized I had been caught had been very amusing indeed to my dad.
The next morning my punishment was given. To tell you the truth I can’t even remember what it was, but knowing my parents it was probably extra work around the house for a week. I felt embarrassed for my stupidity and kept a low profile for a while.
For years I cringed when I recalled that stomach dropping sensation of getting caught.
And then, of course, one day it was funny.
Long after having moved out, I was sitting around one night with my brothers recalling the various times we had gotten in trouble and how dad always pretended to be more mad than he actually was. We all started laughing at my incident and I could finally see the humor in it.
What seemed like such a big deal at the time turned out to be quite amusing later.
Now it’s my motto and I remind myself as often as necessary: eventually it will be funny.
Feeling like something is just too much right now? Give it some time and you never know, it just might be a delightful source of amusement to you later.
Remember to not take life too seriously and to not take yourself too seriously.
xo,
Kathleen