I’m not superstitious, and yet I won’t walk under ladders, I knock on wood all the time, and I obsess over numbers and what they could possibly mean. Naturally, when 2012 turned to 2013, I thought to myself, the year of the unlucky number 13. I wonder what could possibly go wrong this year to make all of us non-superstitious wood knockers go crazy?
And then, 2013 happened. It happened normally. It happened unexpectedly. It happened with all of its ups and downs, lefts and rights. It happened sadly, it happened happily, it happened in every way I could ever imagine, and it kept on happening. It happened to be the best year of my life. The reason is simple.
Laughter.
You see, 2013 was also the most difficult and challenging year of my entire life. But through some of the most chaotic times I have experienced, I learned how to laugh harder than I have ever been able to laugh.
It taught me that life can be unpredictable, and a domino effect of omg-the-world-is-ending-except-not-really-at-all can happen to you to the point where you are hiding xanax in your flower bouquet because you are a bridesmaid at your best friends wedding and you’re one of two white girls attending an entirely East Indian wedding in a Sikh temple and if you lose your shit or pass out at the front alter where everyone else is bowing, you’ll always be deemed as that white girl and so you bow down at the alter, put your flower bouquet on the ground next to you and kiss the floor like everyone else just did and because you put your flower bouquet down you’ve just spilt all your xanax pills all over the alter and so you clumsily pick them all up and hide them back in your bouquet, smile, and resume your position hoping mama-ji over there didn’t just witness you smuggling drugs into the temple. 2013 taught me that xanax actually gives me more anxiety, and that being at peace means taking no medication, taking deep breaths, practicing acceptance, doing what’s best for you, and when things really hurt, to let them hurt.
But then,
to laugh.
To laugh like you’ve never laughed before, because when I look back at 2013 and how crazy it was, I now laugh at it all, and have nothing but the best memories possible. It was all those times of being curled up in a ball on Kate’s couch because we were laughing so hard that we couldn’t breathe. It was when the wine was accidentally spilt all over me, and Marta and I dumping the rest of the bottle on my clothing because life’s too short to care about stained clothing and spilt wine. It was me getting overexcited about using the vitamix and realizing I had no idea how to properly cook dandelion pesto and us having to throw away our entire dinner because we were both gagging from its disgustingness.
Laughter is healing. It keeps us humble when things go wrong. It teaches us to look on the bright side, to not take things too seriously, to love harder, to be silly, to put our energy towards things that really matter, and when things are overwhelming, to simply laugh.
You know what number I hate more than 13? 14. And so this 2014, I hope that you can learn to laugh, to let go, and then to laugh some more. It’ll allow you to not only face challenges, and be okay with them, but to face challenges and then ask for more. It’ll teach you how to grow and how to accept life in every colour it presents itself in. Life is always going to change and catch us off guard. So let’s just laugh.