Choose to laugh

This morning, Amazon gave me great news. My book is now the number one Amazon search when the words “Before You” are put in the search engine.

Now, you are reading this (all 5 of you) thinking that is not exciting news. Ooooh! You are wrong, my little friends.

Unbeknownst to me, a super popular book was published with a similar title shortly before I published. Great. Fabulous book called “Me Before You” (no harm to me in helping that author out, the book is great). When people were searching for my book and typing in “Before You”(all 5 of you), you probably saw the other book. Awesome for me, first-time and completely unknown author. But, now, I am the first result. Literally, I had a party for one in my apartment this morning.

Listen, I have chosen, in the past, to take these challenges as devastating. As I told my manchild person yesterday, he taught me a few things in the past few years. The most important one happened on a mountain. I was struggling with my first climb EVER and he said something like, “just keep moving forward, stop thinking about it so much, do what you need to do to get there.” He’s a smart guy. Sometimes. 😉

When I moved to Switzerland, the dollar was strong and had actual value. Within one month? It fell and it was 1CHF to 1.75USD.

When I moved to Switzerland, the borders were open and it was easy for artists like me to travel around, make money, and get a career going. Unbeknownst to me, just two months earlier, Switzerland had joined the Schengen, throwing the borders on lock-down for non-Schengen (that’s most of the world, by the way) residents.

Switzerland and the US had a great relationship. Within about 6 months of my arrival, the banking crisis and security issues forced my two countries into a War of the Roses.

Great time to plan an international move: the year of 2009.

Cool I’m planning a destination wedding in Afghanistan in 2014. Y’all booking your plane tickets?

In all seriousness, life’s challenges tended to make me crazy, depressed, and ill. Until I heard that advice on the side of the mountain. It’s in my book, it was so powerful to me.

Lately, I’m choosing to laugh. Of course my book debuted weeks after a number one, best seller with an almost identical name! Of course my beloved country attacked my adopted country forcing me to pick up a Canadian accent overnight! That’s funny, right?

Breakups aren’t funny (unless they are with infants that wear biking gear in public). Illness isn’t funny. Death isn’t funny. Poverty, malnutrition, ignorance, betrayal, abuse, neglect. There are serious things happening in this world that are not funny. Those things are heartbreaking.

The rest of the stuff? Trying to laugh. A lot. Can’t help myself.

photo by: Ron Clark (innerimage.ch) at the Grand Dolder Hotel, November 19, 2013