Laughter is a good medicine

When the going gets tough strong people laugh.
While living in First Peoples’ isolated communities, I saw that and got the message that laughing improves things; the people with the least had the greatest gift of insight and laughter. I’ve learned when I’ve been too long away from Indian humour and am getting heavy I need a dose of laughter to restore balance and I know which friends to contact.
People who can laugh at the hard stuff delight in the challenge given and the opportunity to succeed or at least give it their best and learn from the experience for future days.
I was not raised with the teachings of laughter; it was the mainstream system that exposed me to the healing power of laughter. Norman Cousins, a white man, was labelled with arthritis; he would have to learn to live in pain. He decided to make whatever life he had happy. He rented a room, watched comedies for two weeks, and walked out a new man. In 1979 he wrote Anatomy of an Illness, a book on the power of laughter to heal.
When I began to work as a nurse in First Peoples’ communities I watched and listened, learning from Elders that laughter’s power to heal isn’t new! It’s been around as long as we have -- millennia! We learn it from our youngest teachers: babies. They laugh with delight and joy, not seeing difficulties as adults do.
As I search memories and notes, I can’t recall which Elders didn’t tell me to laugh.
In their teachings they laugh at life examples: defusing anger by seeing something as funny, seeing the funny sides of a trouble, poking fun at themselves or me.
When working short-term contracts as a nurse practitioner in Garden River, AB, I learned to laugh with others, at myself, many times…
It was a novel experience to be the only stranger in a community. Everyone knew everyone else, but I knew no one. I was trusted and respected for my skills and had significant authority which I didn’t acknowledge because I felt insecure. I saw that authority later when I saw a colleague misuse it.
Ken Ward, a First Nations man from Alberta who has HIV, told a conference how he took tobacco to those who would help him. I heard that and took my tobacco to each of the Elders in their homes, introducing myself, with the CHR’s help to translate to Cree (I do not have my language.)
It must have been the right move, all of the Elder women agreed when I asked if they would help me with any births. It was the one area in which I felt totally inadequate and I wanted help from those who knew how. My insecurity shrunk as each Elder agreed.
Having made my first move to ensure the safety of the People, my confidence increased. I invited the kids to come to my home to watch the movie, White Fang, on Sunday afternoon. The nurse’s trailer had the largest satellite dish so got shows others did not.
The day arrived. My living room was transformed, every piece of furniture and the entire floor was covered by bodies. That’s when the door opened to my first adult visitor. Two kids moved to the already tightly packed floor giving Alex a place on the couch. I offered tea before one kid suggested coffee for Alex. I took the youth’s lead, making coffee. The kids had juice, milk or water.
I set the community’s standard plastic tubs of coffee creamer and sugar on the coffee table along with his cup of coffee. The plate of homemade cookies I’d made specifically for the day was next. As I bent to table an unusual pungent odour seared my nose. Puzzled, I looked
around for the origin.
About that same moment Alex informed me, ‘I don’t think this is creamer.’ The powder stuck solidly to the spoon.
Watching the coffee drip from the clogged spoon I said, ‘It sure isn’t acting like it!’
I dipped my finger in the powder and licked it.
My face glowed red hot, laughter burst from me. ‘The reason it doesn’t act like creamer is because it’s garlic powder!’
The kids hooted and howled, totally oblivious to the movie for that moment. Alex laughed.
I drank tea and coffee black so hadn’t use the powder left on the counter. Opening a jar with a large label and an intact seal I showed Alex this was indeed creamer as I offered a new coffee.
The next day on every home visit the effectiveness of moccasin telegraph was evident. Laughter erupted as soon as I entered and the teasing began. I laughed and provided details they hadn’t heard about my coffee offer.
I knew then that I was part of the community.
That coffee may have proven to the Elder women that I truly needed help with births but the
People were protected by the Creator, not one baby came! However the many times I returned to Garden River, I was welcomed as a long-gone member.