masterwordsmith-unplugged

Some readers have been wondering why I post so many jokes at either 11 a.m. or about 3p.m. everyday. If truth be told, there are a few reasons for this.

Firstly, I believe that I have changed quite a bit over the past few months and appreciate laughter more than tears or fears. From a tragedy queen, one filled with pessimism, I prefer to laugh than to moan, groan, grumble or cry. Instead of dwelling on bad experiences, I would rather fill my life with memorable experiences that make a difference in the lives of others and my own. Rather than being critical of this and that or getting high blood pressure from teaching students who do not want to be taught and would rather memorize their way through high school, I prefer to spend my time reading, writing, blogging and taking life one day at a time. In this way, I am happier, saner although poorer but I treasure my mental and physical health more than my bank account. *Linda - if you are reading this - yes, I have thrown in the towel for sure this time :-).

Secondly, with so much unhappiness in the air and cyberspace with regards to the economic and political situation, I believe that it is so important to maintain balance in our lives. While it is good to lambaste when the situation warrants it, we must not be consumed or overwhelmed by this climate of dissatisfaction. The inclusion of humor in my blog is an attempt to diffuse the situation with some comic relief that we main regain our sanity and enjoy therapeutic relief by laughing out loud. Laughter is an integral part of communication as every single human being understands it. Regardless of the language spoken, everyone laughs. We don’t even learn to laugh as we must for speaking; we are already born with the innate ability to laugh from the time we were born.

Many may not realize it but laughter occurs unconsciously and cannot be faked. In fact, laughter is part of our survival mechanism to cope with the pressures of life. Did you ever realize that those who laugh easily are usually happier than those who don't? When we laugh, it almost seems as though our body is being cleansed of stress and negative emotions. For me, a bout of uncontrollable laughter makes me feel relaxed and very much at peace not forgetting the many good feelings that follow laughter. My younger boy and I laugh a lot because we joke a lot and make sarcastic and funny remarks at each other in good fun thus creating a very happy atmosphere at home.

Frankly, I used to take life very seriously but I realize that the more I laugh, the more able I am to take life less seriously and to cope with the reality of situations. Reality and our lives are not as important or real as we are led to believe. If only I had reacted positively to the challenges and situation of my life from November to January - I would have saved myself a lot of heartache and sleepless nights but I am glad I learnt it now rather than later. Greet every incident and encounter with the belief that reality is not solid and life is not a serious affair, and you will not be able to hold back the laughter.

“Humour was the only means of counteracting the compulsion of human awareness to take inventories and to make cumbersome classification.” – Carlos Castaneda, The Fire From Within

So these days, I really laugh a lot each and every day spontaneously watching a hilarious movie to exchanging jokes with my family and friends, and I have never been happier. I believe it is important to laugh out loud and to lose ourselves in laughter. A good bout of uncontrollable laughter will leave us feeling relaxed and at ease with life, which is the way it should be. Now, I eliminate stress factors or characters from my life and choose to dwell in love, laughter, happiness and good health.

Thus, I can assure you that I have not lost my marbles :-) and hope that the jokes I post in my blog can bring a smile or two to your face and release lots of laughter. If any offend, please forgive me because that is not my intention at all.

Enjoy the following joke...



As a bagpiper, I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man who had no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery in the remote countryside and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there.

As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost and being a typical man, did not stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the crew who were eating lunch but the hearse was nowhere in sight.

I apologized to the workers for my tardiness and stepped to the side of the open grave where I saw the vault lid already in place.

I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long but this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. I played out my heart and soul.

As I played the workers began to weep. I played and I played like I'd never played before, from Going Home and The Lord is My Shepherd to Flowers of the Forest . I closed the lengthy session with Amazing Grace and walked to my car..

As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I overheard one of the workers saying to another, "Sweet Jeezuz, Mary'n Joseph, I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

Have a great weekend filled with lots of laughter and an outburst of joy unspoken!

At my age, it is quite difficult to sustain zeal and zest in a task because it can be physically draining. I am still in my forties and yet, I can feel age catching up on me. When I look at people who are older and wiser, it always inspires me to plod on and this story is one of them...Be inspired and whatever situation you are facing - don't give up. I am telling myself the same thing. Have a nice day!

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Paul Rokich is my hero. When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near an old copper smelter, and the sulfur dioxide that poured out of the refinery had made a desolate wasteland out of what used to be a beautiful forest.

When a young visitor one day looked at this wasteland and saw that there was nothing living there -- no animals, no trees, no grass, no bushes, no birds...nothing but fourteen thousand acres of black and barren land that even smelled bad -- well, this kid looked at the land and said, "This place is crummy." Paul knocked him down. He felt insulted. But he looked around him and something happened inside him. He made a decision: Paul Rokich vowed that some day he would bring back the life to this land.

Many years later Paul was in the area, and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans to bring the trees back. The answer was "No." He asked if they would let him try to bring the trees back. Again, the answer was "No." They didn't want him on their land. He realized he needed to be more knowledgeable before anyone would listen to him, so he went to college to study botany.

At the college he met a professor who was an expert in Utah's ecology. Unfortunately, this expert told Paul that the wasteland he wanted to bring back was beyond hope. He was told that his goal was foolish because even if he planted trees, and even if they grew, the wind would only blow the seeds forty feet per year, and that's all you'd get because there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds, and the seeds from those trees would need another thirty years before they started producing seeds of their own. Therefore, it would take approximately twenty thousand years to revegetate that six-square-mile piece of earth. His teachers told him it would be a waste of his life to try to do it. It just couldn't be done.

So he tried to go on with his life. He got a job operating heavy equipment, got married, and had some kids. But his dream would not die. He kept studying up on the subject, and he kept thinking about it. And then one night he got up and took some action. He did what he could with what he had. This was an important turning point. As Samuel Johnson wrote, "It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. In the same manner, present opportunities are neglected and attainable good is slighted by minds busied in extensive ranges." Paul stopped busying his mind in extensive ranges and looked at what opportunities for attainable good were right in front of him. Under the cover of darkness, he sneaked out into the wasteland with a backpack full of seedlings and started planting. For seven hours he planted seedlings.

He did it again a week later.

And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and shrubs and grass.

But most of it died.

For fifteen years he did this. When a whole valley of his fir seedlings burned to the ground because of a careless sheep-herder, Paul broke down and wept. Then he got up and kept planting.

Freezing winds and blistering heat, landslides and floods and fires destroyed his work time and time again. But he kept planting.

One night he found a highway crew had come and taken tons of dirt for a road grade, and all the plants he had painstakingly planted in that area were gone.

But he just kept planting.

Week after week, year after year he kept at it, against the opinion of the authorities, against the trespassing laws, against the devastation of road crews, against the wind and rain and heat...even against plain common sense. He just kept planting.

Slowly, very slowly, things began to take root. Then gophers appeared. Then rabbits. Then porcupines.

The old copper smelter eventually gave him permission, and later, as times were changing and there was political pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing, and they provided him with machinery and crews to work with. Progress accelerated.

Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, rich with elk and eagles, and Paul Rokich has received almost every environmental award Utah has.

He says, "I thought that if I got this started, when I was dead and gone people would come and see it. I never thought I'd live to see it myself!"

It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.

What was it you wanted to do that you thought was impossible? Paul's story sure gives a perspective on things, doesn't it?

The way you get something accomplished in this world is to just keep planting. Just keep working. Just keep plugging away at it one day at a time for a long time, no matter who criticizes you, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many times you fall.

Get back up again. And just keep planting.

Just keep planting.

Taken from THIS LINK.