“If love is the treasure, laughter is the key.” Yakov Smirnoff
Somewhere – out there- there is a small, little, narrow box that people live in. I tease my brother about his box because he doesn’t like to travel outside of Ohio or even drive downtown. My parents think that because I do yoga and practice meditation that I must be worshipping idols. There are days I wonder how I was born into this family and it makes me laugh.
I make light of the fact that I’m a recovering Catholic because I’m a divorced, gay-loving, open-hearted, woman that swears too much, has intimate, direct conversations with God (no priest required) and believes that we’re all imperfectly perfect and we all get second (and third and fourth…) chances at love and life. And now that I’m re-married, my new last name is Pope. Now, that is both ironic and hilarious.
With my career in corporate marketing, I spent 20 years amongst some of the best and brightest cerebral-types that thrive on power and control. There were days that I would look around and wonder how I got there, always feeling just a little out of place. When I think back on that time in my life, it makes me laugh.
Now, there was a time that I wasn’t always laughing.
There was a time when crazy crap like that would drive me up a wall.
I always felt compelled to change people because I didn’t understand how they could think / act / do / be that way. Surely once they knew what I knew, they would change their mind; they would magically see the light that I saw and do things differently.
But, now it just makes me laugh and love and smile.
I can now love the people in my life, right where they are, without needing to change them, fix them or debate them.
I can now love them even though we’re totally and completely different from one another.
I can now respect their journey without it impacting the truth of my own journey.
I can now just simply show up in love and my relationships have never been better or more fulfilling.
Sometimes it’s the crazy crap that makes me laugh and love even more.
Who in your life have you been trying to fix? In what part of that relationship can you begin to simply accept and find some levity? That’s your first step toward just loving and accepting people where they are, while still loving and accepting yourself.