Sunday, February 27, 2011

Laughter


I heard my husband laugh before I ever laid eyes on him! Sitting with my sister in the seminary cafeteria, I heard this wonderful laugh...the kind that comes from deep in a person's soul. My sister worked for the seminary at the time and that's the reason we were eating there...not because we were scoping out the men, even though it was a nice venue to do that in, which we didn't necessarily think about but probably were unconciously doing it anyway...

Now where was I? Ah, yes, the seminary cafeteria!

I asked my sister, Vangie, who it was that was laughing so loudly. She looked up, then looked back at her supper and matter-of-factly said, "Joe Green." I asked her to point him out...which she did...and I saw this handsome guy with dark hair and long sideburns standing at the back of the line with his arms folded across his chest, his head back, and laughing with everything he had in him. I was totally taken with his laugh! It was full and happy. I figured he must be a fun kind of guy to enjoy a laugh that much. I was right. Not long after that I married him!

I didn't marry him for his laugh, or his good looks, or the fact that he had a really cute 1970 Volkswagen Beetle...although those were nice benefits. I didn't marry him because I liked his hair, which was long and thick, covering his ears. In fact, I never saw his ears until after we were married when he came up out of the water in the hotel swimming pool. I stood on the side of the pool thinking: "Hey, that's the first time I've seen his ears...and I'm his wife!" (The ears were nice and looked as though they were a good fit with the rest of his head.) I married him because I had fallen in love with him...quickly...three-months-after-we-met-quickly...and have loved him for over 37 years. I sold my red 1967 Mustang to pay for our wedding! I MUST love the guy! (When I get hacked off with him, I tell him how much I miss my car! smile)

We laugh a lot at our house. We laugh everywhere...even when we're trying to get to sleep. Something funny will pop into our heads and we laugh. Pretty soon we can't stop laughing. In fact, our daughter slept down the hall from our bedroom and on occasion would hear us. LAUGHING! (we shut the door when we weren't laughing or sleeping) After she tired of hearing the raucous laughter from the other end of the hall, she'd call out: "You know you have a daughter down here who needs some sleep so she can go to school tomorrow!!!!!!!" We'd quiet down for a bit and giggle, but then something would happen and we'd start up again. The daughter got over it, and I hope that when we're gone from this earth, and she is old and needing to remember something fun about her parents - she will remember having to call us down for laughing too much! She's married and in her own house where she and her hubby can laugh as loudly as they want and not bother anybody but their dog, Dexter (NOT named after the serial killer, but after a jazz musician).

Just last week, I had Joe laughing in bed and begging me to stop singing:
This is a song that never ends
And it goes on and on my friends
Some people started singing it
Not knowing what it was
And they'll just keep on singing it
Forever just because
This is a song that never ends...
I can't remember why I was singing it in bed, but it was fun at the time. And now that song is stuck in your head, isn't it?!!? Go ahead...try it tonight...start humming it softly then break out into song! If you sleep alone, you'll be entertained. If you sleep with a dog you may have a howling good time. If you sleep with a cat, you might be abandoned. If you sleep with your spouse and start to sing...you may still end up alone or abandoned. (But chances are, you'll both end up laughing!)

I am one of those minister's wives who can say that her husband is just the same at home as he is everywhere else! Not every one can. He's a happy guy...and that makes for a happy wife...which makes for a happy home. Oh, we have our moments, like every other couple, but the moments of laughter are so much fun!

Proverbs 17:22 reads: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." I married a man with a merry heart!



Remember, if you have a pulse, you have a purpose...so make your life count!

No comments:

Post a Comment