Exuberance

Exuberance

“When the world around me is going crazy and I’m losing faith in humanity, I just have to take one look at my dog to know good still exists.”— dogsareloveon4legs.com

This week I saw a meme on Face Book and burst out laughing.  Just imagine this:  A Golden Doodle is on his hind legs, paws propped up in front of the television screen, as a horse race is about to begin.  You see his body tense in anticipation.  His stubby little tail begins to wag, faster and faster as he awaits the beginning of the race.  Even on Face Book, you begin to feel your own excitement growing, as you watch his.  And then the gun fires to begin the race, and this exuberant dog begins to bounce up and down as though on a trampoline.  I chuckle to myself even now as I think of it.

The state of the world being what it currently is, it had been a while since I had laughed that hard.  I considered what it might be like to have such a dog-like attitude in life.  For one period in our marriage, Terry and I had Clifford and Jody, Great Pyrenees siblings.  Clifford was a 172 pound gentle giant.  Jody, his smaller sister, consistently found ways to “best” him.  If we walked in the woods, she would hide herself as best she could behind trees and jump out when Clifford lumbered by, startling him every single time.  In our van, Clifford would start out lying on the back seat.  Before long, Jody would leave her spot on the floorboard, inserting herself into whatever space she could obtain on the seat.  Eventually, Clifford would give in to her and retire to the floorboard.

Once when we were travelling with them to New Mexico, we encountered a heavy snow.  They had never experienced snow before.  They ran, leaped, chased each other joyfully.  One could almost imagine them shouting “Life is good!” Certainly their spirited energy lent itself to my feeling a thrill as I watched them, I myself enjoying a sense that “Life is good!”

In her article “The Sixteen Habits of Exuberant Human Beings,” Kate Bratsker included the reminder that laughter is the best medicine. “In the case of The Blues,” she writes, “ this may hold some truth.  A good, old-fashioned chuckle releases happy brain chemicals that, other than providing the exuberant buzz we seek, make humans better equipped to tolerate both pain and stress.”

Not to minimize the grief of the world, or the difficulty we encounter as we seek to maintain our equilibrium in the midst of it, indeed, humor can be a balm, healing our spirits when we have reached a tipping point, when we are more inclined towards despair than to delight.  (Please refer to the opening quote. 😊)

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

Hope’s Café Bonus:  You may recall Norman Cousins, of Anatomy of an Illness fame.  Cousins, who claimed as a child he set out “to discover exuberance,” did research on the biochemistry of emotions,  believing them to be the key to human beings’ success in fighting illness. In 1964, when he was diagnosed with a crippling connective tissue disease and ankylosing spondylitis, and was told he had a 1 in 500 chance of recovery, he developed a regimen of Vitamin C and laughter. He watched re-runs of Candid Camera and other comedic fare, eventually recovering.  An amazing and accomplished man for many reasons, it would seem he achieved his childhood goal of “discovering exuberance.”