Laugh

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face –

Victor Hugo

My phone that is deemed “smart” informs me that, at the time of this writing, the Anchorage temperature is 25 degrees Fahrenheit - or 28 according to the same phone.  (How smart does a phone have to be in order to be consistent?)  Either temperature proves mild for Alaska’s largest town.  While the degrees are quite nice, I prefer more snow during this time of year.  We like winter here! 

I look out my window and see gray skies and like-color gravel lying atop the slippery ice.  Oh, and the leafless birch trees look gray as well.  I am reminded of Seuss’ My Many Colored Days - 

Gray Day . . . Everything is gray.
I watch.  But nothing moves today

This morning was a mixture of other types of gray. 

• Rising from my bed with cracked ribs making their presence known (another story for later);
• Watching Bailey, my aging beagle, struggle with the stairs;
• The morning rush of “Eat your food,” “It’s time to go,” “Put your socks on,” “Take Bailey out.”
• A lost number 3 out of a 9-CD recorded book (So much for finishing that read/listen!)
• And late to school.

Time out –
Here is a “Thank you” to my wife for handling this on a regular basis.  I usually miss the morning rush by going to the gym, but the afore-mentioned ribs prevented that today.  Now back to the story . . .

On days like today, laughter is great.  In fact, laughter is always (OK – mostly) great.  For one reason, days change.  As Seuss reminds,

Then all of a sudden I’m a circus seal! 
On my Orange Days that’s how I feel.

For another reason, even when gray days follow gray days and gray days follow those, spring will come.  God created you and me with the capacity to look forward.  Humans remember yesterday and live today and also dream of tomorrow.  So we laugh . . . 

• We laugh at falls, knowing that we learned from that tripping hazard. 
• We laugh at verbal miscues, fueled by the knowledge that we won’t say that again. 
• We even laugh at those “Wow! That was stupid” moments in life, at least grateful that we survived. 
• We laugh.

I laughed and then not long thereafter, my “not dumb” phone

announced the arrival of a text from my wife.  I received this picture of her with our youngest son on a snowshoe fieldtrip. 











Then another picture came from a good friend who witnessed

another fieldtrip – one of a beloved four-legged creature. 









Gray days, while gray, sure can provide great play in the snow days!

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but crushed spirit dries up the bones –

Proverbs 17:22