Laugh a Little

My Color Me Rad cornstarch hair color!
Picture by T. Thomas

Okay, so this morning I saw a post on Facebook from Lindsay Harper, another 5 Prince Publishing author, who has a book coming out in two days by the way (How to Have an Amicable Divorce). She was asking about life long ambitions and basically what’s on your bucket list. Well, I have to admit, getting my book published was definitely on my bucket list. But, recently, I checked off another entry on my list.

I ran (walked…shh, don’t tell anyone) in the Color Me Rad 5K in Raleigh, NC. First of all, it was the most fun I’d had in quite some time. Now, anyone who knows me, especially that wise man I mentioned last week, knows I don’t equate running with fun. Run and fun may rhyme, but that’s about as close as I can get those two words in the same sentence. Why did I do it? Running a marathon was on my list, maybe? Actually, I figured if I was doing something that would distract me from the idea of running, then maybe I could get through it. Trust me when I say, if you’ve never done a 5K and it’s on your list, you may want to try this one. I did the run with a friend of mine from work and we laughed and talked the entire way. We really laughed when she got pummeled in the ear with yellow cornstarch and later when we had to wrap up in sheets just to get in her car to head home.

I’ve always had an issue with laughing at myself. I’m guessing it has to do with not wanting others to laugh at me (go figure). But at some point in your life, you have to stop taking yourself so seriously. I’m not saying there is nothing in life to be serious about, but if you never let go and just laugh and have some fun, you may miss out on some of the most enjoyable aspects of life. You also may miss out on bringing a little joy or happiness to someone else. (Like we did when we stopped by our office to show our new multi-colored cornstarch look to a co-worker. She got a good laugh out of it.) My character Sydnee, in The Christmas Tree Guy, has that same problem. She’s so caught up in the things she needs to do, she never really focuses on what she wants until she meets Quinn, a young personal trainer in the tree lot while getting a Christmas tree.

It’s easy for us to get so focused on ourselves, making sure we do things just right, so no one can laugh at us. But honestly, if I’d done that a few weeks ago, especially after seeing the pictures of me trying to run, I would have never signed up. It reminds me of that picture on the Internet of the woman who looks so graceful as she’s running and the caption says something to the effect of ‘How I wish I looked when I ran,’ and down at the bottom, there is another picture of a little girl with a wild look on her face. The caption for that one says, ‘How I really look when I run.’ Yeah, well, take that picture of the little girl and multiply it by five. Believe me, I got a good giggle out of that. So learn to laugh at yourself. You’ll be amazed at how freeing it can be.

Railyn