Go through life with ease and joy

Sherri T.

“Laugh often and go through life with ease and joy.” These are the wise words of dear friend Lyse.

 Several years ago, my colleague Sharon really needed to hear these wise words. She had just been through a gut-wrenching divorce.

Every last plate, cup and fork served up an intense legal confrontation. From start to end, the five-year process was a veritable trip through hell.

The children were not spared the tension in her home turned battleground. Throughout the ordeal, Sharon’s son was hospitalized for anxiety and depression. She couldn’t help but believe that the drama in her world had now become his. 

To make matters worse, Sharon had to quit her job to take care of her son. The entire saga left her broke – and broken.

Clearly, this woman would have every right to believe that her role in life was to suffer. She would often ask herself: “Why me? Whatever happened to sharing the wealth or, in this case, sharing the grief?”

Many others in her position would have thrown in the towel. They would have checked out long ago.

Not Sharon. She had two kids to live with – and for. She knew that she would have to choose between life getting the better of her or getting a better life.

Fortunately, she chose the latter. Sharon decided that she needed to embrace whatever good, however small, she could find in her world.

She made a decision not to give in but resolved, instead, to live large. This did not mean climbing Mount Everest or jumping bungee off a cliff. Neither did it mean travelling to a remote jungle or checking into an ashram for spiritual rebirth.

In Sharon’s world, embracing life meant a conscious choice every single day to wake up on the positive side of the bed. It meant deciding deliberately to stay close to the friends who had stood by her side and who supported her, non-judgmentally and steadfastly, through the long and rough ride. 

Because of their support, Sharon can now truly appreciate Lyse’s wise words to laugh often and go through life with ease and joy. More importantly, she actively lives them.