Bloganuary – Day 1

What advice would you give to your teenage self?

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Well, that’s easy:

Laugh more!

And

Just laugh about it!

Being much older and wiser than my teenage self, I have the experience of time on my side to know – not only in my heart but also in my bones – that life is just too short to sweat the small stuff. So instead, laugh more. Laugh long and loud and, ultimately, just laugh about it and stop being so serious all the time.

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Here’s an example of something I’ve (recently) learned to laugh about.

Dean and I have a small cleaning business and drive around from place to place cleaning the homes of our clients. In my opinion, there is nothing worse than turning up for a job in a sweaty shirt, and (believe me) it doesn’t take long for your shirt to become sweaty during summer. To alleviate this, we carry spare shirts with us.

With our car parked in a client’s driveway, I used to open both the front and rear car doors on one side of the car, huddle inside that U shaped space I created, and try to discretely change my shirt before we headed off to our next job.

I was so self-conscience, so embarrassed at the thought someone would see me exposing my brassiere. I would stress about exposing my bare shoulders, my midriff, my covered breasts.

Heaven forbid someone driving past would catch a glimpse of my lacy support garment.

But you know what?

I finally realised there isn’t much difference between a bra and a bikini top and these days, I now have a laugh to myself and I whip off one shirt and replace it with another sans modesty U shaped space.

And I can laugh, loud and long, from the bottom of my belly.

Want to hear me laughing?

Check out the second video on my post yesterday – that’s me laughing at our son-in-law riding a flying fox. I start laughing around the 11-second mark.

As much as I wish I had learned this lesson earlier in life, I’m thrilled I’ve learned it now.

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