Laugh At Yourself - Stacks Of Cups, Fuzzy Socks, And Flights of Stairs



(Picture by me, feel free to use it if you want.)

     How good are you at laughing at yourself? Ya know, when you do something stupid, and everyone just saw you, how do you handle that?

    Once, while working at Grace Adventures camp, I knocked over thirty plastic cups all over the floor in the dinning hall. CRASH! There was a guest group that had just finished having a meeting in the annex, and they came over and started helping me pick them up. I felt so embarrassed by the whole thing, but it was funny. I mean, picture me on my hands and knees, picking up cups, when about twelve or so college age students walk over and  get down on the floor with me to help. They all seemed to think it was pretty funny. After thanking them, and showing where to put the cups (now they had to all be washed. *rolls eyes* ) I went into the kitchen and laughingly shared the story with a few of my co-workers.

     Ha, there was also that time when I was out to lunch with two of my friends and while smelling the bottle of spices (hey, it was an odd spice, and I didn't know what it was, and I was curious), I spilled it on myself. ;) And because I had my camera as always, they took my picture and teased me about it for a good long time afterwards... (Yes, by posting this I am potentially reminding them...)

     Yeah, those were kinda embarrassing, but no harm done. The point I'm trying to make is, look at it from the other person's perspective, and laugh. I've heard the saying that life is more fun when you don't take yourself so seriously. That seems to be true. We all are going to do stupid little things in life, and often people are going
to be watching. If it really is a stupid little thing, then laugh! The people around you may be holding back laughing after you made a scene, but go ahead and give them permission to laugh. Face it, often what you just did is funny - messy perhaps, or clumsy on your part, but funny - and ya might as well let it go. This is coming from the person who used to fall down the entire flight of stairs (about 12 steps ) several times every winter until I stopped wearing fuzzy, over-sized socks. (Or as I called them, 'death socks'. When you go down the stairs at the speed I sometimes do, they are not a good choice.)

     Do ya know part of why those embarrassing moments are funny to people? Because most of them could happen to anyone, and we all know it. So shrug and move on when you stumble over half the things you were saying to someone. Laugh when you do those small embarrassing things in life. And know what else? Go ahead, go do something silly just to be that way sometimes. *Grins* I don't have this down yet at all, haha, but I've found life is a lot more fun this way.  ;)

Goofing around for the fun of it. ;)

~Ophelia - Marie