We have shared before, the importance of being able to laugh, smile and enjoy some fun and banter. It is hugely important every day for our health but perhaps even more so in these difficult days.
So with the excitement of our forth coming virtual holiday on Friday I thought we would enjoy some laughter and music today.
This is an amusing and very cleverly choreographed and exercised ballet routine from The Vienna State Opera. It is amusing and does reflect the talent of all involved in this perhaps especially the pianist. Enjoy!
Do you find it easy to laugh? Differently, I ask too, can you laugh at yourself? I always think of myself as sometimes getting things wrong, for example I miss hear something and then learn the error of my ways and other than perhaps feeling mortified, embarrassed but it is often amusing. I remember when I first started school and telling my Mum I had learned all about Madam and Evelyn in the Bible (Adam and Eve it turned out to be!) - we need to be able to to laugh at ourselves, but we don't always do it!
There can be amusing incidents even in the most sacred of moments and we need to be able to recognise this and then move on.
I recall a visiting catholic, high church Bishop to my theological college, to celebrate the weekly all college Eucharist. The Bishop was warned that the altar in the chapel is very high (height) and that he might need to be aware of this whilst celebrating. So all was ok, until after the consecration, when he raised the chalice to receive and caught it on the edge of the altar and it flowed all over him, over his shoulders and the floor: the blood of Christ spilled in riverlets down his chasuble and puddles on the rust coloured mat under the altar. There was a hushed silence, the horror of what had just happened, before help arrived. There was an embarrassed silence and then afterwards a great release of laughter, even from the Bishop.
Always take care because mishaps do happen when live-streaming!
And when hosting meetings:
The boss in the above picture fiddling with her video settings turned herself into a potato. Couldn't work what she had done so had to conduct the rest of the meeting as a potato!!
Weddings are often a source of funnies!
"Ken Brown, who plays at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore, MD, described what happened after one bride who loved musical theater asked him to accompany her singing “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar.
“Fortunately, I knew the piece as well and brought up the portion of the text where the song goes ‘I’ve had so many men before, in so many different ways, He’s just one more….’ I suggested this was perhaps not the sentiment she wanted to convey to her husband on their wedding day, and upon quick reflection, she agreed.”
Many years ago I had one very snowy wedding the bride arrived in a beautiful, tight fitting straight gown and the road where the church was situated in Durham had been cleared of snow, salted and gritted. Within seconds the bride's white dress had black streaks up the sides and front of it from spray from the traffic. The bride and her father were concerned when she got to the church door, that Grandma had slipped on the snow at home and appeared to have broken her collar bone. The ambulance had been called and I should have just about time to conduct the wedding before they arrived.
The wedding went ahead ok, but in the vestry one of the navy blue bridesmaid (adult) leant back on the double fireguard gas fire and melted a huge hole in her dress, exposing her very brief pants! Mum said "Oh no! They were hired and we have had lost the deposit now!". The bride and groom set off up the very long aisle, only to meet the paramedics coming down the aisle to collect Grandma and after adjusting the bridesmaid's bow some of her dignity was also restored! It was a chapter of accidents! But a few weeks later had an additional cheque from the family, as they saw it as the best day ever, and Grandma was well on the road to recovery!
Nora sent this to me last week to be shared on the blog. It is good but misses out on stating laughter is so important. What do you think?
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
v
Kitty O'Meara
So make time today to have a good laugh and smile about life in general and maybe what you can observe on your walks or from your windows. Know that healing will occur and we will again enjoy a full form of life, although different when all is right.
Thank you Rhian, the ballet was wonderful and made me laugh.