People who laugh actually live longer than those who don’t laugh. Few persons realize that health actually
varies according to the amount of laughter. ~James L. Walsh With that being
said, I would agree to a certain extent.
I believe that laughter is contagious and lightens the load. Psalms 126
offers a wonderful verse about laughter: Psalms 126:2 Then our mouth was filled
with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the
nations, “the Lord has done great things for them.” I would venture further and
say that because of all the Lord does for me and, laughter is good for my soul.
He graces me with the joy of laughter and contentment no matter what
predicament I get myself into! My soul is HAPPY!
I have been
laughing for the past 2 days at all the conundrums I have gotten myself into.
For the past 2 weeks I have been plagued with a nasty strain of the flu, a
bronchial chest cold and other achy ailments.
It seems a well-known fact that when a person is not feeling up to par,
it is difficult to keep a smile on one’s face. I
consider myself to be a ”smiler” and a “laugher.” Lack of ambition and
diminished physical strength is not something to smile about; however, I must
be feeling better due to all the laughter I have been blessed with in the last
36 hours. It you want a few laughs, then
keep on reading.
Feeling a little ambitious with the impending storm a-coming, I whipped
up a batch of healthy chili and a crock pot of deer meat. These are some of
Marty’s favorites and I thought they matched well with the storm! Comfort food.
Sadly, he got stuck in the snow storm and to be safe he stayed at New Beginnings
overnight. The food would have to wait! No
problem, they always taste better the next day right?
Since I would be alone, tending the fire was my job and I did it
well. The house was up to 80
degrees. I like that temp! A LOT! It may be important for you to know
that I am one who usually has a back-up plan when something goes awry. Well, awry occurred! On one of my trips to the blustery
snow-blowing outside woodpile, I closed the door; not wanting to let any
precious heat out of course! NOT a good idea! Thankfully, I had the sense to
put on a hoodie and a pair of old sneakers. (Sometimes I sneak outside
barefooted but thankfully not last night.) SO, there I am with a pile of wood
expecting to turn the knob and nicely go inside to stoke up the fire. HA! I dropped the wood at the stoop and
started laughing out loud. This locking myself
out of the house when Marty is not home seems to be my specialty. What to do besides laugh and call myself a
bumblehead? Thinking I could walk to the
neighbor’s house about ¼ mile away was a good back-up plan because calling
someone was not an option as my cell phone was inside on the couch table; nice
and warm! It was dark and I was not really dressed that warmly, but, yes I
could hoof it to the Israel’s where I envisioned they would put me up on their
couch for the night. Then I remembered
the SECRET key! Ah, yes, the key that
would get me back into the house.
Everyone has a secret key. In my
case, I need 10 secret keys; one outside and the other 9 duct taped onto my
body! SO, I trudged through the 12 feet
of snow – okay 12 inches- and in less than 10 minutes outside, I was back
inside grateful for the warmth. SO grateful and feeling blessed to be in my own
home that I decided to put the SECRET key on a chain and wear it around my neck
all night; JUST in case! Wanting to
share my narrow escape of a sleepover at the neighbors, I called the Rents. They said they would have come up and gotten
me. That’s parental love to the
extreme. They would brave a fierce storm
to help out their, not so smart, only daughter get back into her house. Note to self, make sure they have some extra
SECRET house keys!
The next spurt of laughter occurred today after snow blowing and
shoveling a wide swath of a path for our chickens. Thinking they may want to come outside for a
look-see and scamper in the snow (do chickens scamper?); I took great care in
carving out the perfect area for them. They
made all kinds of joyful clacking and clucking while I stood outside telling
them to back up as I opened the door.
They listen well too! Upon
opening the shed door, all 7 of them jockeyed to be first to go outside and see
Momma (me). Matilda won first place. She
is a little pushy at times! Aptly named
too! Have you ever seen a chicken put on
their foot-brakes? Comical to say the
least. It was like a pile up on a major
highway. Boom, boom and 5 more booms chicken faces slamming into their sister
chicken…..ummm…backsides and making so much racket, you could not hear yourself
think! NOT a good idea for them, but it
brought joyous laughter from me. These
adorable ladies never cease to amaze me. They turned around and high-tailed back into
the warm depths of their Marty-built suite of a coop! I followed them in and went over to the
nesting box to retrieve their daily presents.
Today they offered up 3 eggs. As
I thanked them for blessing us daily with these wonderful treats, I carefully
and expertly placed them in my right coat pocket; something I do daily without
problems….until today! NOT a good idea. I said my goodbyes to the girls, closed up
their coop and proceeded to take the snow blower back to its shed. All went smoothly UNTIL I reached into my
pocket for the key (not a secret key mind you) to lock the shed. I not
only pulled out the key fob, but with it came a glove-full of a broken, golden
yolked egg that went on for miles; at least it seemed that way. I never knew an egg could make such a
colorful wet mess all over me and the snow!
At least the keys only poked one of those chicken gems! The other 2 survived unscathed; albeit yolk
covered though! Again, I had to
laugh. I started to think about what
might happen next in my days of solo-fun here at the Kunzmann Farmette. Just
the thought brought me to more laughter. Throughout these past 2 days, I know
without a doubt that God watches over me, allowing me to make a mess of things all
the while patiently waiting until I turn to Him and seek His guidance. During these times I remember that I am~SO
Blessed
