A note from Erin:
Hello, beautiful human.
Some thoughts on the underrated and oh so important spiritual practice of having a sense of humor:
About yourself
About the mess you’re in
About the ways you get stuck
Again
And again
And the ways you get in your own way
And make things harder than they need to be
Aren’t you cute?
Aren’t you funny?
About the clown show by politicians
And the absurdity of the times
And the way you get so serious about it all
Tight
Clenchy
Hard
Defended
Urgent
As if that helps
Notice the way a laugh makes a crack
That can become a canyon
From which a flood of
heart-lifting
softening
warming
flow and glow
can spread
And you can meet the moment
And each other
freshly
Without armor
Without clench
With levity and possibility
And a soft belly
And you can begin again
With a twinkle
And a smile
And with the blessings of play mind
(Which always has vitality
and is never so exhausted
as poor
serious
big deal mind)
And so may we laugh
Not in cruelty at each other’s expense
But at the ridiculous beauty
And the miracles
And the mystery
And the challenges
And the stupefying goodness
of the human heart, awake
And that we get one more day
in the wild dance of it all
And may we remember
how good it can feel
to crack up
and let softness flow from our cracks
Even when we step in the cat’s vomit
or hit every red light
or don’t have enough money
or stain our brand new shirt
but keep trying to make the best of it anyway
Even when we trip on the sidewalk
When we drop the ball and
the spinning plates
which are too much to carry anyway
May we laugh so hard our tears stream
and our guts ache
and we pee our pants a little
May we remember to be kind
May we begin again
I know if a person cannot laugh at themselves
Their foibles
Their own ridiculousness
Their struggles
at least sometimes
If they cannot laugh in astonishment
at the return of the robins
the squirrel with big balls
eating seeds at a tiny picnic table
At the sunrise that blessedly came again
I cannot have them for a friend,
for a teacher
or even for dinner
Life is too short
And too important
And too wildly holy
To be taken seriously
May this reminder I wrote to myself be a blessing to you as well.
Wishing you well
with laughter
and a soft heart
in the midst of hard times,
Erin
