SPIRITUAL TIDBITS

Spiritual Tidbits are bits of wisdom from Master Rose.

A new tidbit is posted on the first of every month.​

 

December  2025

 

When All Else Fails, Laugh!

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     Thanksgiving 2025 is approaching, and I am reminded of a Thanksgiving dinner that
almost didn’t happen. My family and I had recently moved out of state and we were
unable to have our traditional Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. A new friend of
mine, who loved a good laugh as much as I did, lived with her husband, son, and father.
They invited my family to join theirs for Thanksgiving dinner. We decided to share the
cooking and were looking forward to a fun day.

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     Early on Thanksgiving Day, my friend called to tell me that they had a family emergency the previous night and we would have to adjust our plans. I asked her ifvthere was anything I could do, and she said, “I would like to continue with the Thanksgiving Day celebration, but there is just one glitch, I don’t have enough time to cook the turkey now. I reached within for a creative idea, and one came. I said, “What if
we tried to make it in the microwave oven? It says in the manual that you can.”

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     I arrived at her home shortly thereafter. We cleaned and stuffed the turkey, anticipating an easy solution. All went as planned until we tried to put the turkey in the microwave. The breastbone was so high that we needed at least another few inches of clearance to fit it in. Our hopes were temporarily dashed until another creative idea presented itself. I said, “What if we could break the breastbone, reducing its height?” Everyone liked that idea. Someone produced a rubber mallet. I placed the turkey on the countertop and draped it with a towel. I gave it a whack, but nothing happened. So, I decided that it needed a better whack to get the job done. I lifted the mallet and let her rip. The turkey bolted off the counter with such momentum that I swore it had learned to fly all over again. It sailed through the air and landed on the floor, a good distance away, with a loud splat. The turkey was a sorry, misshapen sight, but it was significantly lower in height. We belly laughed for the longest time before plopping the bird into the microwave and getting on with our day. It has been over 45 years since that Thanksgiving Day, and I couldn’t tell you how the rest of the day went or what we ate, but I will never forget the flying turkey, the splat and the incredible laughter that we all shared. It still makes me laugh out loud to this day when I remember it.

 

     I find it easy to laugh because I believe that true happiness is our birthright. It takes a lot for me to leave happy, and when I do, I return to it as quickly as I can.

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     Several years ago, my mate and I were traveling in our RV. We were going 65 miles per hour when a 75 mile per hour cross wind developed. The wind hit us suddenly, ripped the side awning from its mounting, and tore it in half. The awning filled with air, like a sail on a ship, causing the RV to list to one side. We needed to contain the awning somehow before it flipped the RV over. We went outside and had to cling to the side of the RV for dear life, because the wind was literally knocking us over. We made our way to the back of the RV, climbed up the attached ladder to the top, and shimmied on our stomachs to try and cut the awning free. It was brutal and dangerous. At one point, we straddled the awning frame in an attempt to tame it. It lifted us up and slammed us down repeatedly like a bucking horse. It quickly became obvious that we were losing the battle. So, with nothing else left to do, we looked at each other, simultaneously said an expletive aloud, and started laughing about how ridiculous our situation was. We surrendered to the wind, shimmied on our stomachs back across the top of the RV and made our way back down the ladder. Within moments, a kind soul pulled over to help us. He was like an angel, well, maybe he was an angel. He and my mate went back up to the top and, with their combined effort, were able to cut the awning free and throw it to the ground. We survived! The RV didn’t flip over, but it did sustain $10,000 worth of damage, all covered by insurance. A few days later, I was relaying the saga to an acquaintance, laughing as I relived the details. She looked at me as if I had grown an extra head and said, “Why are you laughing? I would be horrified and crying.” I responded with, “Well, at times like this, you have two choices, you can laugh or you can cry, but laughing is a whole lot more fun.”

 

     I’m not suggesting that we ignore the reality of our situation by developing a non-reactive Pollyanna attitude. Reactions are good and are necessary for physical survival. For example, if we didn’t react, when touching a hot burner on the stove, by quickly pulling our hand away, we would burn ourselves. So, a reaction is never the problem, the problem is often the action that we take after our reaction.

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     Whenever the mind reacts to something, we receive a gift, a powerful wave of energy. We can spend this energy any way we choose to. The problem is that we often fail to choose. We operate instead out of our preprogrammed default settings, our knee jerk reactions, and spend the energy in ways that don’t serve us.

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     Reactions are designed to be short lived. For example, you put your hand on a hot burner, and without hesitation, you pull it away as quickly as possible. The need for a reaction passes and you get on with your day. Or maybe you don’t.

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     The body and mind are designed to move out of a reactive state within seconds; you react, take the appropriate action to ensure safety, and then move on. Unfortunately, it is possible to work against the design and keep a reaction going for minutes, days, weeks, months and even years if you dwell on the situation and feed it with fear, anger, worry or some other form of negativity.

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     I believe that true happiness is our birthright. I stay connected to true happiness at all times, so it is easy for me to return to it after my immediate reaction to a situation. If I find myself straying from true happiness by beginning to worry about an outcome, I reconnect to it as quickly as possible, and when I do, creative solutions always appear.

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     Certain situations, like the loss of a loved one, can tempt us to abandon true happiness, but it is not necessary. We can grieve and stay connected to our core of true happiness. True happiness can provide us with great comfort in our times of need because its origin is love.

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     I remember attending many Irish wakes as a child. The family and friends would gather by the casket and react by feeling sad and shedding some tears. The same would happen at the graveside. Afterwards, there was a grand party where drinks and funny stories flowed freely. The tears of grief turned into tears of laughter as true happiness overtook the sadness.

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     The human condition can be very funny and worthy of genuine laughter, or it can be a miserable experience, depending on our chosen perspective and our commitment to true happiness. The choice is ours to make. As for me, I hold by my stance that you can laugh or you can cry, but laughing is a whole lot more fun.”

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​Copyright©2014 by Master Rose Ashley
All rights reserved

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