Marriage is a Funny Thing

 …at least, it is in my house. 

My husband seems to think it’s his role to constantly keep me in stitches.   He even told me so, just this week.  Suffice it to say, it’s a role he takes quite seriously.

He runs on the spot.  He dances into the room.  He dances out of the room. 

On the back side of the island, he takes the ‘elevator’ or the ‘escalator’ or the canoe.  On a good day, he’ll take the kayak.  We’ve seen it a thousand times, but we can’t help but laugh.  All of us. 

He makes crazy faces.  He sings songs.  Constantly.  He changes the lyrics to something fitting and manages to always incorporate the words “burger and fries.”   It makes no matter that he’s in his late thirties.   He’s always been a clown, and probably always will. 

But his best moves are the ones that involve an outfit of dress socks.  That’s it.  Just socks.   Occasionally he’ll put a towel on his head for extra effect.  The man cracks me up. 

What makes me laugh the most is witnessing his total gut laughter at something else.  The kind of laughter that brings tears to his eyes.  The kind where he can’t stop.  The kind where five minutes after the last laugh, he starts all over again just thinking about it.  Those are the times I most enjoy. 

I love it. 

But then there are times when I’m in a grump and I just don’t want to smile.  There are days when I’m exhausted and fed up and I’ve used my last smidgen of patience on that day’s clean up disaster and temper-tantrum combo, and I don’t have the energy or a single ounce of desire to even pretend to smile.  Sometimes, I just want to wallow for a few minutes. 

Those are the days when D comes in with extra jazz hands and crazy eyes, pulling all the special moves out of his ‘gotta make my wife laugh’ arsenal .  I intentionally avoid looking at him, I am familiar with his tactics.  I’ve seen his work enough before to know all about it.  But somehow, despite my best grump efforts, my peripheral vision picks up on a horribly ungraceful pirouette and I burst into laughter.  It can’t be helped. 

And he puts his arms around me and says “See?  It’s okay.”

And I know it is.

Does your husband do things that make you cry with laughter?  Do you realize what a blessing it is that he loves you enough to want you to be happy?  If your husband isn’t making you laugh like you wish he would, are you up for a challenge of trying to make him laugh? 

Try it.  Do something completely crazy and out of your comfort zone.  Laughter is infectious and once it gets started, perhaps neither of you will be able to stop.  Maybe your husband will start to count it his work, to keep you laughing. 

Once you get a taste of it, it might just overtake your life like it has mine.  It truly is a Finer Thing.