People are Funny

How many times have you thought that? Lately, I am thinking it all the time. Thinking this helps keep my sanity. If I don't laugh at people, and situations, I would go crazy. And, when I say laugh at people, I am including myself. When I laugh at people it isn't so much at them, as it is what they do, their behavior. I know there is a fine line between sanity and insanity, but sometimes, I wonder.

I believe that life could be a lot more fun for all of us if we stopped taking it so seriously. We are so connected with each other, in so many ways, but we act so separate at times.

Since when did the US become the empire of the world, and decide, who can and can't have nuclear weapons. If we truly wanted to not allow other countries to have nuclear weapons, we won't have them ourselves. It is like having a toy as a child, but telling all the other children that they can't have the toy you have. This to me is funny.

We are more similar than we are different as people. When will we realize that. If we would stop taking ourselves so seriously and realize that there is enough for everyone. If we could only learn to share.

We are destroying ourselves, each other, and the planet, because we take things so seriously. In the end, we all end. So why not enjoy the ride, and make the ride fun for everyone. Life is hard enough, without each of us making it harder for each other.

Children have the answers. They know how to play, laugh, and forgive, and to be in the present moment. They enjoy life. They may fight, but they forgive quickly. And I think they learn fighting from us. I think they learn all the negative things from adults. They learn hate, and seriousness from us.

I have to keep finding people funny, or else I would be extremely sad, about how unfunny many of us work at being,

This is so good, I wanted to share.

A Letter from Grandma
Got a letter from Grandma the other day. She writes:

The other day I went up to a local Christian bookstore and saw a "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker. I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting, so I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper. Boy, I'm glad I did! What an uplifting experience that followed! I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is, and I didn't notice that the light had changed. It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed. I found that LOTS of people love Jesus! Why, while I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, "For the love of GOD! GO! GO! Jesus Christ, GO!" What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus! Everyone started honking! I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people. I even honked my horn few times to share in the love!There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a "sunny beach." I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. Then I asked my teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant. He said that it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well, I've never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign back. My grandson burst out laughing; why, even he was enjoying this religious experience! A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, I waved to all my sisters and brothers grinning, and drove on through the intersection. I noticed I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out of the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away. Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!
Love,Grandma

Jana Ruth
Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life
www.janaruth.biz
www.laughandlivehappier.com
www.laughingworld.blogspot.com

You are Way Too Happy!

The other day at work as I walked down the hall and said hi to a co-worker, she said, "You are way too happy! My reply was, "No, I am not. You can't be too happy." What does that mean? No one has ever said to me, "You are way too serious." What made this especially ironic is the person who commented that I was way too happy, is a supervisor in the Employee Relations department. One of the problems in organizations and companies is that people take themselves way too seriously. However, we rarely hear a person telling another person that, "You are way too serious." In fact, I have never heard anyone say that to another person. We might say it about someone, but we don't say it to them.

It is like "misery loves company." It is like if I am miserable you must be miserable too. How dare you be happy when I am not. People can't rain on your parade unless you allow them to.

There seems to be a common thought that as an adult, a person has to have a reason to laugh, to smile, to be happy. People have asked me, "What are you smiling about?' What are you laughing about?" Why are you so happy?"

Happiness, laughter, and smiling seem to be very suspect. We seem to have to have a reason for all of those things. Research shows that we don't have to have a reason for being happy, smiling or laughing. As Abraham Lincoln said, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Happiness, laughter, and smiling are all internally motivated. We choose to be happy. We choose to have fun. We choose our lives. We can't control what happens outside of ourselves but we can control our thoughts, feelings, and behavior about what happens.

The Law of Attraction says that if you are happy you will attract more happiness in your life. If you are sad you will attract sadness. What stops us from being happy, laughing, and smiling? One way is the belief that we don't deserve to be happy. Or that people or other outside circumstances keep us from being happy. Or we spend too much time living in the dead past or the imagined future instead of the present.

I believe we know to encourage each other's happiness, instead of being jealous. If you are happy does not mean that I can't be happy. This world is a world of abundance with enough to go around. Any scarcity is only a scarcity of our thoughts. We create that scarcity or abundance. We create our own happiness, and I don't think there is any way any of us can be too happy.

So join me in swallowing a double dose of delight and choose to be WAY TO HAPPY!

Jana Ruth
Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life
janabanana15@cox.net
www.janaruth.biz
www.laughandlivehappier.com
www.laughingworld.blogspot.com