Humor helps

I am really grateful for my sense of humor. It has helped me through many a difficult time. I've often said I need two things to get me through this life: my faith and a good sense of humor.

Humor has helped me handle stress better. Laughter is healing, and we're told it keeps us healthier when we do it regularly. I'm all for that! Humor can help us keep a perspective about life and its challenges. It can defuse tension and anger. It can assist us in staying grateful and positive.

I always credited my father for my sense of humor. And, indeed, he had a totally engaging sense of humor and loved to make people laugh and enjoy life. Some of my favorite memories of him are around mischievous, funny things he did or said.

So imagine my surprise after he died to find my mother's much quieter, more reserved sense of humor grow and blossom. She had often yielded the floor to him as a teller of jokes and mischief maker! My siblings and I didn't really notice her good sense of humor until Dad was gone. But there it was—in a different form and style from Dad's. But humor nevertheless. That Dad was more extrovert to Mom's introvert probably made his humor more noticeable. Now I thank them both for their legacy (and a sense of humor is only one small part of that).

In addition to my gratitude for that funny bone I inherited, the experience also makes me even more aware of people whose gifts are quieter and less "out there" than those of others. They're still important gifts, and the world needs all our gifts. I try now to be more conscious of the variety of ways people's talents and gifts are expressed and lived out.