In case you haven’t noticed, the situation on planet earth has gone crazy. Everyday there is a new danger, a new societal issue, an old societal issue, fake societal issues and just all around negativity. I used to think there were days that I would wake up and just emit negative energy. You know those days when all of a sudden nothing works? Your printer quits, your computer won’t turn on or your AC breaks? I’m trying my best to keep those days few and far between. I’m trying to shore myself up with positive energy.

But day after day, lately month after month, negative energy is taking over like the slime in a 1980’s Ghostbusters movie. It’s like when the Staypuft Marshmallow Man got blown up by the statue of Liberty, and his goo got all over everybody. (If you were born after 1995 and are reading this, welcome! I’m glad you’re here but you may want to brush up on your 80’s pop culture.)

But how are we supposed to handle our mask wearing, social distancing, and working from home while we are rallying for changes, getting tested without going to the doctor, grappling over whether we are democrats or republicans, denominational, nondenominational, conservative, liberals, librarians or libertarians, all while staying indoors but going outside, swallowing rapidly to stave off the virus but holding our breath to keep it in, not getting too close to anyone who might be a super spreader or a corona carrier? We know things like you might be Asymptomatic or have B symptoms but you can never take too much C vitamins. You get my point. You’ve seen all the info graphics and memes by now. It’s just too much somedays.

So what do we do?  What is the solution while we are waiting for it to be over? It seems like we are doing a lot of fretting about what is on the horizon. And for the sake of my sanity, please, nobody ask, “What’s next?” I don’t want to know anymore. Hey 2020, just don’t surprise me from here on out, okay?

I think I have a solution. It seems to work for me and my crew whenever things get sticky. (I would say when things get hairy, but….. well you know.)

In one word, the answer is LAUGH! I mean really laugh, like a belly laugh. Find something funny, something that makes your insides erupt. Laugh off your stress. Giggle about the ‘Rona. Snicker with those you are hunkered down with. Even laugh alone if you have to-seems creepy at first but if it helps, I say go for it. If you don’t feel like it today, laugh tomorrow or the next day. If you’ve gone a few days without laughing, go find something to laugh at! Go back and find your favorite funny tv show or revisit your favorite coronavirus meme. (I’ll share mine with you later in the post.) Go into your own memory bank and withdraw your funniest times of days gone by.  I think of something so funny like that time my brother wore that shirt to church that said CAT SHIRT but it was a little wrinkly so when he got up to take up the collection during the worship service, it looked like it said CAT SH!#. I remember how your mom almost had a coniption when she saw it. Now thats a funny distraction. No? Just me then? Well ok but you surely have similar stories. Revisit those memorable and pleasant times from way back, dust them off and giggle a little bit. Share the memories with others who were present. Connect a little.

Whatever you do, don’t tell yourself it’s not okay to smile or that it’s not okay to find humor even somewhere in what seems to be these direst of times and places. That’ll make me feel so bad for you! And I don’t want to feel bad for you.

I recently wanted to take a young nurse by the hand and say SMILE! Tell her it is okay to laugh. I get that the circumstances under which I met her were somewhat serious because I was there too. I was more nervous than she was. It was when The Smartest Boy in the World was facing a pretty serious surgery. This go around, he has a lot of new doctors, new nurses and was at a new hospital but, fortunately, he has his same old dry sense of humor. He was having a biopsy of a lymph node gone rogue deep in a very sticky area of his chest. But he had planned, schemed and laid in wait for days for somebody to ask him, “Mr Guy, can you tell me why you’re here today?” All that anyone had to do was ask him that one question just so he could answer, “I’m just here to get a little something off my chest.” Hilarious, right? Of course I thought so because I’m his mother. The young nurse was mortified! She couldn’t even muster a courtesy giggle.  I felt so sorry for her. I wanted so badly to tell her that it’s okay, to tell her that this particular condition is called a sense of humor. Nonetheless, taking her hand in mine is against Coronavirus law and I didn’t want us to get put in COVID jail before surgery. But it could’ve totally made his day if she had just snickered a little. It certainly would’ve eased the tension for all involved.

I know stuff is serious. Stuff is really serious these days and for good reason. Coronavirus is serious business. In our house, cancer has become a much too serious topic. I’m not saying make fun of anything or anybody. I’m not saying take matters lightly. However, if you don’t laugh some, you’re going to cry a lot. Trust me here! I am a professional crier. I can cry at the drop of a hat. Crying is ok sometimes, but just like you can’t laugh at everything, you can’t cry over everything either. Find some humor! Look for it. It’s out there. Call a funny friend. I can send you to some funny friends of mine that I can always count on for a laugh. If you are the funny friend, do your due diligence to provide your humor for others. It’s your God given talent.

It’s ok to laugh, I promise. Your blood pressure and frown lines will thank you for the break. Friends who might be suffering will thank you for the reprieve. Laughter will lighten the weight on your mind and soul.

But how do we just muster up laughter? Nobody wants to seem weird by just sitting alone in their quarantine pjs, in the corner, just yukking it up. Oh, just me again? I’m okay with that. So let us create together a little positivity, a little sunshine to start up little giggle.

I’ve made a list of a few of the people or things that have made me laugh over the last few months. Some have links to click so you might be entertained as well. I also promised you my favorite quarantine meme and here it is. This makes me laugh everytime.

I don’t know who this person is but I thank them for sharing themselves with the world! And it’s totally not because I was about 60 seconds from giving myself this very haircut… No, not at all.

Some of the other things and people on my list are:

Comedian LeAnne Morgan is very funny everyday but shares some insight into her funny adventures of her own quarantine world.

Leslie Jordan’s Instragram quarantine videos have entertained us all.

We’ve been snickering at the websites SnarkyCancer.com and StupidCancer.org. We even bought a funny t-shirt or two.

The streaming services like Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu have kept us entertained with our favorite 80’s movies like of course, Ghostbusters!

And last but not least, my own people! They always have provided laughter but in quarantine, they have taken it up a notch or two. Our littles have totally kept us from losing our minds.

And the Sheriff never disappoints-just like that time in the early days of quarantine, when the he cut off my curtains because he thought they were too long…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Okay, so maybe EVERYTHING is not so funny. And he doesn’t get to play with scissors anymore!

Anyway, think back. Remember those times in church when you weren’t supposed to laugh but you couldn’t help it? The more you tried not to laugh the more you couldn’t hold it in? Be like that again. Let it go and let the laughter flow. Literally, laugh out loud-everyday. We are living in a world where it seems we are constantly trying not to laugh. We are willing ourselves to misery! Stop it. You are making me feel bad for you again. Don’t do that to yourself. Maybe our moms will pinch us later for laughing. However, if you remember, she’d forget about it if you got her laughing too!

So get the laughter started. Ask yourself, who can I make laugh today? Then go do it!!