Laughing at a Funeral

My family buried my grandmother today, and it was bittersweet and heart wrenching and I miss her unspeakably.

During her service, in the midst of my family crying and not crying, and crying again, the organist (who wasn't very good and was playing a malfunctioning organ) dropped his sheet music onto his lap in the middle of playing. Since he couldn't pick it up while playing, he began to bullshit his way through it.

With every awfully timed note and off key pitch, I started to find it funny. And as the music got worse, sounding more like a carnival ride in a horror story than a church service, I started giggling. At first, everyone seemed to think I was hysterically sobbing, but when they looked over and saw this poor organist, miserably plunking out his song without his music, they all started giggling too. And then none of us could stop, and the whole congregation probably thinks we're the most inappropriate family ever, but I don't care. My grandmother would have found the whole thing devastatingly funny, and suddenly, things felt more okay.

It reminded me that life is too short not to find the humor in it, even in moments of profound sadness. Find joy in the little things.