I love this photo of Silas and Daniel.  If you don't know them, they are both very extroverted, funny, mischievous and athletic. Their sense of humor is reflected in this pose and I hope that their humor will hold them in good stead for years to come.  Humor is of divine origin; it is God's gift to humanity. Humor lightens the soul from all of the seriousness of life. I speak with lots of parents who are having stress with their children's behavior and I often advise them not to turn everything into a problem, but to find the lighthearted and even the absurd in those situations in order to break the tension and diffuse the anger.

     Some of you may be of the generation that remembers the writer Erma Bombeck, whose humorous, realistic and pragmatic approach to life's difficulties aided so many of her readers. She famously quipped, "If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" Comic relief implies just that: it is a relief from anxiety and stress and enables us to view life from a different vantage point that: "This too shall pass."

Written By: Father Lance W. Harlow

Date Published: January 20, 2025

Photo Credit: Matthew Knisley