Sometimes it’s a place. Sometimes it’s an object. Sometimes it’s a situation. What’s common? They always lead to smiles and laughter.
As soon as I say THAT WORD, it happens. Instantly. It’s a Smiles and Laughter Outbreak.
And It happens every-single-time.
Let me briefly set the scene: It’s dinner time. My partner is grabbing a bowl for his dessert.
As he reaches in the cupboard to grab the bowl, I say THAT WORD.
Even with him side-on to me, I can see it. It’s so, so obvious. His face lights up. There’s a big grin. He laughs as only SJK can. It’s like he can’t stop it.
And you know what, it happens every single time I say THAT WORD.
THAT WORD? ‘Ramekin’. Yep, who would have guessed right.
“I’ve never heard that word before you said it”, he says chuckling. “How do I know you’re not making it up?”
Now it’s not unlike me, to make up words, so he could have a point there. But not this time.
Side note: A Secret Confession – My diet of Enid Blyton books growing up in rural Australia, has lead to many, ‘I’ve never heard that word before‘ comments from SJK.
Little did I know then how Enid’s choice vocabulary – that’s obviously firmly embedded in my brain – would set me up for these magic moments.
As we’re falling about laughing, a totally different image suddenly came to my mind….
It’s a new inner city park, quite close to where we live. To create it, they closed a small road, and transformed the whole area into a green oasis.
Well, maybe I’m over-egging the description there, but we do LOVE IT.There’s a small grass area, new trees, and lots of seating – but not in the usual way ‘oh so boring’ ways.
There’s a bit of creativity in the design that’s really appealing.After the park opened, my partner and I started a new ritual. Everytime we were in the area, we’d purposely stop and sit down in the park, soaking up the ambience, and having a laugh. Mostly it’s just for a moment or two – but that time is something special to us.
Since then, our ritual of relaxing in the park has become a habit. Not one of those ‘oh no’ groan, groan, groan habits. It’s a habit that feeds and nourishes us – lifting our spirits.
On journeys home from the supermarket, as we tire from carrying the shopping bags….I anticipate THE PARK. And as I see it in the distance…I automatically begin to smile.
Even as I write this post, I have a cheesy grin on my face thinking about THE PARK.
Any tension or stress that I’m carrying seems to lift, as I anticipate sitting down in THIS PARK, just for a brief moment.
As soon as THE PARK’s in sight – I’m happy, thinking about getting there, being there, and relaxing once more. And once we’re there…. MMMMM
It’s just like our RAMEKIN moments. As soon as the word is said, it’s smiles all round.
As soon as SJK picks up the RAMEKIN, he’s anticipating me saying ‘RAMEKIN’. And voila, there it is, the big smile and loads of laughter once more.
My sister and brothers not only make me smile but usually have me rolling on the ground with that “milk coming out of your nose” kind of laugh! That “milk coming out of your nose laugh” would invariably hit one of us each and every night as kids as we sat around the dinner table. Today, we are all older and live in different parts of the country BUT it never fails–when the siblings get together we all find that there is nobody quite like family to make us laugh as much as we do together. BTW–We have since learned not to drink milk when we are all together–it’s not pretty! 🙂
Hey Sara. You had me giggling there myself. There is nothing quite like the ‘milk coming out of your nose’ laugh moments…where we just go with it…just react in the most visceral way. No thinking, no analysing…but just being.