Laughing at yourself

When I was a kid and first started learning how to ride a bike, I kept falling. I got the steering thing down pat. I just couldn’t steer with the handlebars and pedal the bike at the same time. I would weave and veer and fall over onto the macadam. I scraped one knee, then an elbow. The sun was going down and I was frustrated, but I had to try once more.

Sure enough, I figured out what I was doing wrong. I rode from one end of the road to another, turned around and rode back to the other like I had been doing it for months. I would have jumped off and celebrated but I didn’t want to stop and forget what I was doing right. Instead, I rode for another forty-five minutes in the dark.

What worked? I stopped worrying about how I looked, how I was falling, and just enjoyed the moment. Life tends to work that way. When we stop worrying, stop fretting, and just laugh at life’s lighter moments, we make the most progress. At least that’s how it tends to work for me.

You gotta laugh.

I write about laughter and learning something new in my blog today, Meditate on This! on The Heart of the Matter. Let me know what you think. Be sure to check out some of the other posts and podcasts on the Heart of the Matter too. Lots of great stories, wisdom, and perspectives on the site.

Image by Pavel Danilyuk via Pexels