STRESS + TIME = HUMOR

I heard a great quote today on the radio. I'd give credit but I'm down with a nasty cold and didn't catch who said it. Perhaps he didn't originate it anyway, but at any rate I apologize.

"Stress plus time equals humor."

If you don't believe it read the my blog "A story from the past, Phil's Turn to get up with Bentley." (September 15. 2007) This was NOT funny at the time. It was a major stress for all of us but, hey, it's funny now.

Carol Tuttle, a woman with great insight--buy her book, Remembering Wholeness--you won't be disappointed--says we don't live in the present. We live in the past or the future. We fret over the past, we do the should'have's, could'have's, would'have's. I've done this several thousand times. I should have taught the kids better, should have had Family Home Evening better, should have read the scriptures with them better--there's a list so long that I couldn't list them all.

Or we live in the future. What if such and such happens or what if such and such doesn't happen?

Pretty soon our stress level is beyond measure.

Then we get sick. Like today for me. Or we get depressed. Or we decide to cut our losses and run. There are lots of things people run from--relationships, religion, jobs, marriages--some people just clam up and don't talk. That's running too. Or we blame someone else.

I don't necessarily have any answers how not to live in the past or the future but I know if we lived in the present we'd be better off. Right now my handout for tomorrow--I have to teach in Relief Society--is frozen. I know that it will probably stay frozen and I'll have to close it down and start all over. See, living in the future. Anyway, it will be funny tomorrow but not right now as I really want to go to bed or have Phil rub my feet and tell me I'm a wonderful person or I want to sit in front of the fire and eat hot popcorn with browned butter. Well, maybe not. Maybe tomorrow, when I'll be completely well. Or...maybe I'll be completely well right now, in the present.

Anyway, it's worth looking at, this stress business, given some time, becoming funny. And it's worth looking into living in the present too.