I'm sure most of you have had at least one embarrassing moment in your lives - either by something you did personally, or as a result of someone else's actions. But what did you do to recover? For all that people fuss about getting older, there is something to be said for maturity - most people finally learn not to "sweat the small stuff." Most of what we worry about will take care of itself within a year's time, and the rest of what we worry about never happens anyway. So why worry? And if something embarrassing happens to you, laugh. If you can laugh at yourself, you're far ahead of the game.

This isn't wisdom we are born with, unfortunately. It seems that when we are younger, we tend to be more concerned with how people think of us and are more impressionable. As we grow older, this becomes less important and other things take a higher priority. They say that laughter is the best medicine and I tend to agree. As long as you can keep your sense of humor about you, you'll get through life a whole lot easier.

Several years ago, for example, I was working at Farmers Insurance when I showed up at work wearing a pair of high heels that didn't match in color. It wasn't a matter of them being a black one and a brown one, oh no, one was purple and the other was peach! In my hurry to get to work that morning, I'd grabbed a left shoe and a right shoe (at least I got that part right) out of my dark closet and away I went. It wasn't until I pushed myself away from my desk sometime during that morning that I discovered my faux pas.

If any of you are familiar with how things work at a very large company, you will know that it didn't take long for 600 women to learn about my fashion blunder. I was mortified, to say the least. What was interesting to me, however, was that there were many women of all ages who had stories to tell me throughout the day about how something similar had happened to them. One lady even showed up to work once in a sandal and a loafer - go figure!

While I'm sure that all these "true confessions" were meant to make me feel better, they didn't. My age at that time was not seasoned enough to appreciate the circumstances. Now, however, whenever I wear the wrong colored shoes, I have to laugh. (Oh yes, I've done it twice since then - once to church and once to work at another job, although the purple and peach heels are long gone). What's the big deal?! Life is just too short, folks, I say, Folks! Life is just too short to take things so seriously. And if out of my shortcomings I can bring a little sunshine into someone else's day because of making another entry into the "Stupid Things I've Done" book, then where's the crisis?

As the years have passed, I've come to appreciate the healing power of humor. I really try to look for amusement in contrary circumstances and I try to make the best out of a bad situation. It takes less effort to laugh than it does to cry, and while crying does have benefits, laughter is much more healthy. So the next time you do a dumb thing, let me know - I'd like to share the laugh with you.

Robyn

email:porter@elite.net

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