Winter does funny things to people.
I wish I could pinpoint what those funny things actually are, but the only one sticking out in my mind at the moment is the fact that they can't seem to drive.
Well, I really can't drive in it either.. but at least I try and go the speed limit.
I remember when we first moved here, laughing about the fact that the speed limits are about 25 mph on every street you go down.
All it takes is slipping once to realize the point behind that.
My Husband and I had an interesting experience last week while traveling home from California.
I don't know why, but this morning I got to thinking back on it...
While driving him to school it was extremely foggy.
Had we been out any earlier I guarantee you wouldn't have been able to see the road... and it just brought me back to our trip.
A trip that normally takes us about 16 hours to do, took about 3 days to do, due to the terrible storm conditions.
And us naive little Californians just kept driving through it, thinking it would let up at some point.
It was Sunday night, Rob had school Monday morning.. and we had every intention of getting home.
It took us about 10 hours to get from St. George, UT to Salt Lake City... it really was ridiculous.
We most likely passed about 15 accidents in that time frame as well, nothing but cars off the side of the road due to driving too fast.
Every time we passed an accident we would talk about how stupid the driver must be, how clearly every one knows that steady wins the race, and how lucky they were to not be hurt... But how stupid they must feel with all these cars laughing at them.
Yeah, we are really great people.
It was probably about 11ish when we were driving through the main freeway system of Salt Lake City. We were most likely going about 60 mph, and the roads were just getting worse and worse... But we were talking and having a great conversation.. one I barely even remember though..
All the sudden our car looses its traction, something that I am sure has happened to many people who reside in winter wonderlands... But it has never happened to us as bad as it did.
We were swerving and sliding.. in the end going over 4 lanes of the freeway.
Nothing I say will bring us back to that moment perfectly.. So just trust me, it was really bad.
My Husband could not have maneuvered the car any better, and thank heavens there was no one around us..
You know, because all the people were actually smart and in their beds and not even trying to fight a storm that clearly could not be fought.
At that point, we knew it was time to stop for the night.. and it was so hard actually getting off the freeway.
You know its bad when plows aren't even trying anymore.
The side streets were even worse.
When we were finally in a safe parking structure of a safe and wonderful hotel (thank you parents).. we just started laughing.
I know, how could you possibly laugh at something like that?
But we did. And we couldn't really stop.
And it wasn't that nervous laughter where you are so glad to be on solid ground, even though that was probably intermixed somewhere.. It was just good laughter.
The rest of the night while we were trying to sleep, there would be a moment of silence broken by one of us laughing and recapping the event of near death.
The reason I am writing this down? Or why I would even want to admit that we are terrible in a moment of crisis?
Laughter.
Thats why.
There have been moments where we haven't been able to laugh.
Like, not even close.
Moments where laughing is literally the last thing on my mind, and if anyone so dared as tried to be funny.. I just didn't want funny in my life.. because quite frankly, life just wasn't funny.
And I am not going to sit here and mourn about the fact that I am the only one who hasn't wanted funny in my life at one time or another, because I know you.. I know we have all seen those days before.
So this morning, while driving Rob to school and while looking at the fog.. It just reminded me that I have been in a weird fog this past week.
Fog is honestly the best way to describe some moods.
And thats when the laughter came into my head.
Here we had just almost crashed our car, almost had to shed who knows how much money, almost got injured seriously.. almost almost almost..
So we just laughed.
Call us insensitive.. Call us whatever you think might fit the description of someone who has no feelings..
But we were OK, so we just laughed.
I'm writing this down so I can remember it.
I'm also writing this down so you can be reminded...
There are some things in life we cannot control.. In fact, most things in life are that way..
People have their free agency, they have the right to choose, and some times.. most the time.. those choices don't coincide with what we want them to do.. or what we want them to say..
Because, of course, we know so much better.
Some times we chose to be offended.. or we choose to be rude.. or we choose to just ignore every feeling in life just to protest that we don't agree..
Or - its us.
It's our attitudes and our choices doing the damage..
Regardless, we cannot control what comes at us.. we can only control our reactions to those situations.
And why not laughter?
Why not laugh at the most inappropriate time when you just could have died?
Because life should be full of it.
Life should be full of moments where laughter is the only thing you can think of to do.
Life should be full of reasons to laugh.. even if they might be really odd and strangely out of line..
Life should be laughter.
Life should be filled with moments where we bring the joy out of everyone around us.. even if we don't feel too joyful ourselves.
I don't know if its true or not, but supposedly it takes more muscles to frown than to smile?
And I just recently watched "Eat, Pray, Love".. where a Guru encouraged the woman to smile from her soul.. that she would not be able to find reasons for doubt and unhappiness if she did so.
So try and smile from your soul today.
Try to lift the spirit of those around.
Try to actually just laugh.
Even if it isn't really that funny time yet.. Make it that funny time.
Because laughter, and happiness, and smiling... It makes those not so funny times easier to get through.
It makes so that you are looking at the world in a light filled with positive hope..
We could have crashed.. we could have been in a terrible situation that Sunday night.. Something certainly not worth laughing over..
Just like whatever problem we are dealing with in life.. It could be terrible.. It could potentially be the worst thing we have dealt with up until this moment..
But there is always tomorrow.
There is always a new day, whether we feel there should be or not..
And there are always reasons to be grateful, and reasons to be laughing..
So foggy day or not.. foggy week or not.. foggy year or not.. whatever one fits your boat.
Find a reason to laugh.
And make it a good one.
Make it a very good one.
Had we been out any earlier I guarantee you wouldn't have been able to see the road... and it just brought me back to our trip.
A trip that normally takes us about 16 hours to do, took about 3 days to do, due to the terrible storm conditions.
And us naive little Californians just kept driving through it, thinking it would let up at some point.
It was Sunday night, Rob had school Monday morning.. and we had every intention of getting home.
It took us about 10 hours to get from St. George, UT to Salt Lake City... it really was ridiculous.
We most likely passed about 15 accidents in that time frame as well, nothing but cars off the side of the road due to driving too fast.
Every time we passed an accident we would talk about how stupid the driver must be, how clearly every one knows that steady wins the race, and how lucky they were to not be hurt... But how stupid they must feel with all these cars laughing at them.
Yeah, we are really great people.
It was probably about 11ish when we were driving through the main freeway system of Salt Lake City. We were most likely going about 60 mph, and the roads were just getting worse and worse... But we were talking and having a great conversation.. one I barely even remember though..
All the sudden our car looses its traction, something that I am sure has happened to many people who reside in winter wonderlands... But it has never happened to us as bad as it did.
We were swerving and sliding.. in the end going over 4 lanes of the freeway.
Nothing I say will bring us back to that moment perfectly.. So just trust me, it was really bad.
My Husband could not have maneuvered the car any better, and thank heavens there was no one around us..
You know, because all the people were actually smart and in their beds and not even trying to fight a storm that clearly could not be fought.
At that point, we knew it was time to stop for the night.. and it was so hard actually getting off the freeway.
You know its bad when plows aren't even trying anymore.
The side streets were even worse.
When we were finally in a safe parking structure of a safe and wonderful hotel (thank you parents).. we just started laughing.
I know, how could you possibly laugh at something like that?
But we did. And we couldn't really stop.
And it wasn't that nervous laughter where you are so glad to be on solid ground, even though that was probably intermixed somewhere.. It was just good laughter.
The rest of the night while we were trying to sleep, there would be a moment of silence broken by one of us laughing and recapping the event of near death.
The reason I am writing this down? Or why I would even want to admit that we are terrible in a moment of crisis?
Laughter.
Thats why.
There have been moments where we haven't been able to laugh.
Like, not even close.
Moments where laughing is literally the last thing on my mind, and if anyone so dared as tried to be funny.. I just didn't want funny in my life.. because quite frankly, life just wasn't funny.
And I am not going to sit here and mourn about the fact that I am the only one who hasn't wanted funny in my life at one time or another, because I know you.. I know we have all seen those days before.
So this morning, while driving Rob to school and while looking at the fog.. It just reminded me that I have been in a weird fog this past week.
Fog is honestly the best way to describe some moods.
And thats when the laughter came into my head.
Here we had just almost crashed our car, almost had to shed who knows how much money, almost got injured seriously.. almost almost almost..
So we just laughed.
Call us insensitive.. Call us whatever you think might fit the description of someone who has no feelings..
But we were OK, so we just laughed.
I'm writing this down so I can remember it.
I'm also writing this down so you can be reminded...
There are some things in life we cannot control.. In fact, most things in life are that way..
People have their free agency, they have the right to choose, and some times.. most the time.. those choices don't coincide with what we want them to do.. or what we want them to say..
Because, of course, we know so much better.
Some times we chose to be offended.. or we choose to be rude.. or we choose to just ignore every feeling in life just to protest that we don't agree..
Or - its us.
It's our attitudes and our choices doing the damage..
Regardless, we cannot control what comes at us.. we can only control our reactions to those situations.
And why not laughter?
Why not laugh at the most inappropriate time when you just could have died?
Because life should be full of it.
Life should be full of moments where laughter is the only thing you can think of to do.
Life should be full of reasons to laugh.. even if they might be really odd and strangely out of line..
Life should be laughter.
Life should be filled with moments where we bring the joy out of everyone around us.. even if we don't feel too joyful ourselves.
I don't know if its true or not, but supposedly it takes more muscles to frown than to smile?
And I just recently watched "Eat, Pray, Love".. where a Guru encouraged the woman to smile from her soul.. that she would not be able to find reasons for doubt and unhappiness if she did so.
So try and smile from your soul today.
Try to lift the spirit of those around.
Try to actually just laugh.
Even if it isn't really that funny time yet.. Make it that funny time.
Because laughter, and happiness, and smiling... It makes those not so funny times easier to get through.
It makes so that you are looking at the world in a light filled with positive hope..
We could have crashed.. we could have been in a terrible situation that Sunday night.. Something certainly not worth laughing over..
Just like whatever problem we are dealing with in life.. It could be terrible.. It could potentially be the worst thing we have dealt with up until this moment..
But there is always tomorrow.
There is always a new day, whether we feel there should be or not..
And there are always reasons to be grateful, and reasons to be laughing..
So foggy day or not.. foggy week or not.. foggy year or not.. whatever one fits your boat.
Find a reason to laugh.
And make it a good one.
Make it a very good one.
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