Laughter and Tears: Living both sides of life

Pain will always change you. It will make you better, or it will make you worse. The key to growing through that pain, is your positive response. It is your choice. You, alone, decide. M. Scott Peck, in his now-famous book The Road Less Traveled made the following statement: A wise man welcomes pain and sees it as a way to grow. During my first divorce, I clung to that saying, milking it for all it was worth, using it to help me grow as much as possible. But by the time my second divorce rolled around, I was so tired of pain, that I cried like a baby. I lashed out. I revolted. No! I don t want to grow anymore! Please God, let me stay a fool! But God, our loving father, calmly stroked the furled brow of my heart and said, Relax child. Just relax. You don t have to be perfect. You just have to survive. Relax, and I will help you. And God did help me, but in the most unexpected way. God taught me how to laugh. While growing through my pain, I accumulated a smidgen of wisdom and perspective, and these two traits pointed me to joy and laughter - the other side of life. Laughter and tears are the medicinal balm of life. They both heal, empower, and exhort, but they were created to be mutually inclusive. They are two sides of the same coin. To have one and not the other is to go through life with a lop-sided personality. All tears and you may end up hopelessly bitter and morose. Conversely, too much laughter, and you may dance through life, never growing wise, never grappling with the eternal questions of Why . Laughter and tears are beautiful gifts from God. Liken them to a pair of wonderful shoes. If you wear one, without the other, the best you can hope for is to limp along through life, doing less than what God intended for you. But if you can merge the two, incorporate both of them appropriately into your life, then you will be freed to live life fully and to better serve others. And now, I wish you the best, as you laugh and cry your way through God s gift of life.