Smile when your heart is breaking, laugh when you need to start a movement

Everyone agrees that to have a good laugh is medicine for the heart and soul. It has also had positive physiological effects on the body. In Proverbs 17:22 it tells us that laughter is medicine for the heart.

A broken heart? Don’t watch romantic movies and eat ice cream and step on a scale. That will dry your bones. Find a good comedy.

Step in a puddle? Don’t curse the darkness, light a candle… and then go a step further. Stop in the middle of the pothole and give yourself a good belly laugh. Imagine it’s your mother-in-law… or think to yourself… “ONLY ME,” and don’t be afraid to be your own comedic distraction. It does a body good.

Trip over your feet in left field while trying to field a well-ripped softball? Lay right down in the fall and laugh so loud that everyone around you is laughing too. Go ahead. Promote healing in those your laughter infects.

Well, it so happens that on one late Saturday afternoon in the first game of a double-header against Campbell County, healing was put to the test. And I witnessed it first hand and have never forgotten these many years later.

A ball was ripped soundly to left field where Lady Bulldog Macy Jones came up with the ball on one hop and was about to throw it to second for an award-winning play.

But something happened. It was either uneven ground or a large piece of grass, but with the ball in her right hand, Jones was turning cartwheels in left field. She stumbled. It was impressive. She fell flat on her face as the ball bounded out toward Hunter Sisson in Center Field.

Then, something miraculous happened. Instead of a young girl being embarrassed and sad with eyes filled with tears, she began laughing so hard that she couldn’t get up to field the ball. Sisson, who at this point was also laughing, had enough strength to pick up the ball and get it into the infield.

Jones was laughing, Sisson was laughing, the Bulldogs were laughing, the opponents were laughing and the fans were laughing. It became the play of the day and through the error, Jones’ laughter brought light hearts to each and everyone who witnessed her fall.

Something struck me. If she hadn’t laughed, it would have made people feel guilty for cracking a smile, but she allowed everyone to feel good in an awkward moment.

The old saying is quoted as, “Blessed is the one who can laugh at themself for they shall always be entertained.”

Suddenly nobody was laughing at her, but everyone was laughing with her. Her laughter was infectious and everyone had hearts strengthened by her actions.

Macy Jones brought the medicine. And it made us all feel a little lighter in a world that is altogether too serious. Too critical. Too somber.

To quote a line from the movie “Stripes,” – “LIGHTEN UP, FRANCIS.”