How Comedy Keynotes and Joan Rivers Changed My Life

How Comedy Keynotes and Joan Rivers Changed My Life

‘Laugh Long and Prosper’ is shelf help with a smile, stressbusters with a smirk, and information with a wink wink. You get the point. Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.  ‘Laugh Long and Prosper’ is shelf help with a smile, stressbusters with a smirk, and information with a wink wink. You get the point.

How Comedy, Keynotes and Joan Rivers Changed My Life

I was honored when fellow comedian and writer Brandy Ford recently asked me to write an article for her brand-new magazine.

I asked her what the magazine would be about?
She said she wanted to have a focus on strong female role models, inspirations and motivational queens.
I don’t know if I fit the bill for any of those things but I can tell you a story about one of the greatest interviews and evenings of my life and how I got there.
If this inspires someone to live their dreams to the max, then that is truly a bonus.
At the very least, I hope this is a good story.

One of the greatest gifts that my parents gave my two sisters and I was a sense of humour.
They were both funny people.
However, as funny as they were, they were also very strict.
By the time my sisters and I reached ten years old, they started interrogating us about what we were going to do with the rest of our lives. Oh yeah, they were super old school.

My two sisters said that they wanted to be teachers.
I said I wanted to be a veterinarian.
Unfortunately, during my second year of university, 70 percent of my fruit flies and 60 percent of my final mark flew out of the biology class window.
I was devastated.
I went home that night, threw myself on the living room carpet and bawled my eyes out.
In the background, the tv was on. A comedian named Joan Rivers was doing stand-up comedy.
That’s when a lightbulb went off for me. Stand-up comedy- what a great idea!
Even though I didn’t have any prior experience (minor detail), I loaded up my car and drove down from Calgary to the states for three months.

I got on open mic comedy nights in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and every city along the west coast in between.
When I came back to Calgary, I packed up my car once again and moved to Toronto.
I started doing stand- up comedy at Yuk Yuks. I was one of five female comics in the country at the time doing stand- up full time.

After about seven years of full-time comedy, I decided that I should probably have another side hustle – just in case.
I enrolled in a radio course at Humber College in Toronto.
What I lacked in radio experience, I made up for in comedic experience.
This experience led to co-hosting radio gigs in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles.
I never stopped doing stand- up comedy in the meantime. I always did both. Radio by morning and stand-up comedy by night.

It was when I was working in Toronto in 2011 when I was approached by Howard Szigeti of Unique Lives who asked me if I would like to host an evening with Joan Rivers at Roy Thomson Hall?
Would I???

As I chatted with Joan on stage, the whole time I couldn’t stop thinking about that fateful night so many years ago when I was crying in front of the tv set. On the same night that my dream of becoming a veterinarian ended, Joan Rivers inspired a new dream for me and I never looked back.

Stand-up comedy led to morning radio which led to corporate motivational speaking, A Tedx talk and teaching stand-up comedy at Second City. I even got to ‘how to’ book about stand-up comedy based on my experiences with my wonderful Second City students.

I got to do everything that I wanted to do in life so I decided to give a little bit back and donate my time to various charities including a local group that helps Toronto’s homeless and most vulnerable called City Street Outreach. This is an amazing organization started by an earth angel by the name of Alex Smirnus and his wonderful wife, Grace.

So, in closing, here is the advice that I would like to offer to any tear-filled teenager who feels like their dream is over– don’t treat your obstacle as a stop sign…treat it as a merge. Maybe you’re supposed to do something slightly or completely different and that’s okay!

Who knows? Maybe one day, you’ll get to meet your Joan Rivers.

I sure wish Ms. Rivers was around today to make us laugh at a time when the world seems to need her humour the most. 

By the way, for any aspiring comedians and/or Joan Rivers fans, here are seven things that I learned from Joan during our interview together May 18th 2011 at Roy Thomson Hall.

Until next time folks, Laugh Long and Prosper!

Judy-Croon-laugh-long-pro$per-sig-logo

Feel free to take a listen!

If you would like to catch up on any of my other Laugh Long and Prosper episodes, voted one of the best podcasts of 2021 in Canada by CTV, check me out.

Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud

Wayne Gretsky – Hockey and Humour

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Today’s blog is sponsored by: TROOL Social knows that to be visible online you have to be fully committed, congruent in who you are and what you do.
YOU MUST ADOPT THE RIGHT MINDSET- Steer your ship to the SS Optimization & TROOL Social To get you Sailing On Course
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Don’t Walk On By The Queen of Twitter

Don’t Walk On By The Queen of Twitter

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.

‘Laugh Long and Prosper’ is shelf help with a smile, stressbusters with a smirk, and information with a wink wink. You get the point.

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.

‘Laugh Long and Prosper’ is shelf help with a smile, stressbusters with a smirk, and information with a wink wink. You get the point.

Don’t Walk On By The Queen of Twitter 

You know who’s funny? Dionne Warwick. So much so that she has been nicknamed the Queen of Twitter because of her witty comments. 

Yes 82-year-old Dionne Warwick. The woman who signed her first recording contract in 1962 and sold over 100 million copies worldwide since then.
The artist who won a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2019.
THAT Dionne Warwick. 

Dionne Warwick has once again re-invented herself and captured a younger a generation with her funny comments on Twitter. 

Tweets like; 

I just heard about Leonardo DiCaprio’s 25-year rule. His loss. You don’t know what you’re missing

Who is Olivia Rodrigo yelling at on Good4U? I would like to know who we are angry with. 

and I will be dating Pete Davidson next. 

She obviously loves to tweet about celebrities.

When she tweeted to Chance the Rapper Hi @ChancetheRapper. If you are very obviously a rapper, why did you put in your stage name? I cannot stop thinking about this?

And then Chance the Rapper tweeted back;
Sorry, I’m still freaking out that you know who I am.

Then Dionne tweeted back to Chance;
Of course, I know you. You are THE rapper. Let’s rap together. I’ll message you. 

And then she tweeted;
I am now Dionne the Singer. 

No one is safe from Ms. Warwick. Not even The Weeknd.
She once tweeted; 

The Weekend is next. Why? It’s not even spelled correctly.

To which The Weeknd responded;
I just got roasted by Dionne Warwick and I feel honored.  You made my day! 

Now people have accused Dionne of not doing her own tweets. She told her fans that her niece showed her how Twitter worked in 2012. She said that ever since then, she said she’s has been at the helm of her own tweets. Who’s cares anyway? It’s Twitter.

On a sadder note, Ms. Warwick recently tweeted about the loss of good friend and composer extraordinaire Burt Bacharach. 

Bacharach wrote those powerhouse songs like Say a Little Prayer, Walk on By and Do You Know the Way to San Jose that catapulted Warwick’s early career.  

Ms. Warwick tweeted;
Burt’s transition is like losing a family member. These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner. On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run ins, but always found a way to let each other know our family, like roots, were the most important part of our relationship. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, letting them know he is now peacefully resting and I too will miss him.

On a personal note, I got an opportunity to work with Ms. Warwick twice in my career.

Many moons ago, I was her opening act in our nicknamed -40 Below Tour during the depths of winter across Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg.

Then many years later, I got on opportunity to work with her again at Roy Thompson Hall. She loves to laugh. You can see us in the picture above yukking it up.
OBVIOUSLY, I said something hilarious.

But my favorite story about Miss Warwick is when Snoop Dogg says he got called out by her in the 90’s for his misogynistic lyrics. 

You check out the story in the CNN film entitled; Dionne Warwick, don’t make me over.

Snoop says Ms. Warwick held an intervention for him and his peers- including Tupac.
She told the group to meet at her house one morning at 7 am.
Snoop says he was so afraid, he turned up in the driveway at 652.

Snoop said, “We were kind of like scared and shook up. We’re powerful right now, but she’s been powerful forever.”

Dionne told the group that if she didn’t care about them, she wouldn’t have invited them to her house. Then she shamed them about their misogynistic lyrics. 

She said, “You guys are all going to grow up. You’re going to have families. You’re going to have children. You’re going to have little girls and one day, that little girl is going to look at you and say, ‘Daddy did you really say that?’  And what are you going to say?”

From that point, Snoop said it changed the trajectory of his writing. He said he chose to write records of joy. “Uplifting everybody and nobody dying and everybody living.”

You may not agree with some of Dionne Warwick’s tweets, you may not agree with some of her politics but when an artist chooses to re-invent themselves and they use comedy to do it…well, I for one, can’t just ‘walk on by’ without taking a look or a listen.

Until next time folks, Laugh Long and Prosper!

Judy-Croon-laugh-long-pro$per-sig-logo

Feel free to take a listen!

If you would like to catch up on any of my other Laugh Long and Prosper episodes, voted one of the best podcasts of 2021 in Canada by CTV, check me out.

Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud

Wayne Gretsky – Hockey and Humour

stand-up-in-10-steps-by-judy-croon-canadas-keynote-humorist

Today’s blog is sponsored by: TROOL Social knows that to be visible online you have to be fully committed, congruent in who you are and what you do.
YOU MUST ADOPT THE RIGHT MINDSET- Steer your ship to the SS Optimization & TROOL Social To get you Sailing On Course
Check out www.TroolSocial.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Humour and Grief -Comedy and Tragedy

Humour and Grief -Comedy and Tragedy

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.

‘Laugh Long and Prosper’ is shelf help with a smile, stressbusters with a smirk, and information with a wink wink. You get the point.

In this particular blog, I wanted to write the constantly reoccurring connection between humour and grief -comedy and tragedy.

Author Steven King once stated that humour and fear are closely related in our brain.

For example, tens of thousands of years ago, the cavemen and the cave women would freak out when they heard a scary noise outside the cave. But then when a little animal jumped by, everybody laughed out of relief. Even since the beginning of time, laughter has been one of the ways that our brain tries to cope or make sense of something that scares or confuses us.

When it comes to making sense of the unknown, Monty Python’s Eric Idle has a similar theory. He says, “Life doesn’t make any sense, and we all pretend it does. Comedy’s job is to point out that it doesn’t make sense, and that it doesn’t make much difference anyway.”

I am chatting about humour, tragedy and grief today because I want to explain why I’ve been missing from social media for close to four months. I have still been doing my live presentations of Relieving Work-Related Stress with Humour because I am lucky enough to have good people around me who keep me working. However, I’ve let my blogs, podcasts and social media slide for the most part.

Last May, my dad suddenly passed away.

It was a shock to everyone who knew him. He was indeed eighty-six years old but he was still active. The week before, I golfed with him. The night before, we had dinner at my sister’s place.

I miss him every day. My dad and I were good friends.
In terms of parents, my two sisters and I won the lottery. We hit the jackpot when it came to scoring an amazing mother and father. They were our parents but they were also our friends.

My mom passed away three years ago after a long battle with osteoarthritis. She was in a lot of pain, especially during the last year. She spent the last six months of her life in the hospital with a good part of that in palliative care. My sisters, my dad, Flo (her superhero caregiver) and myself took turns visiting her. Every day she had someone by her side.

Did you know that dogs are allowed to visit palliative care?

When I visited my mom, I always took my dog, Barnie. At first, I didn’t know this was an option. A good friend of mine who is a doctor told me to look into it. All I needed to do was present the paperwork showing that Barnie had all of his shots. Also, if you bring a dog to palliative care, it should always be on a leash and obviously, have a calm, quiet disposition. There is A LOT of sitting around. So, if your dog is this type of a dog, I would highly recommend it. It’s a welcome relief to many other patients, visitors, staff, etc.

Barnie did what dogs do best – he was just present. He’s not particularly smart, he doesn’t do tricks, he doesn’t have a degree, but he just loves people. If they want to give him a pat or a scratch, even better.

During those six months, we sat by my mom’s side for many hours.

My dad was there every day. He insisted on taking the evening shift.

It was a lot of stress on all of us but especially for my dad. So much so that he suffered a minor heart attack during that time. In fact, he ended up down the hospital hallway from my mother for a couple of weeks. They ‘celebrated’ their last anniversary together – in the hospital.

So yes, there has been a lot of stuff going on over the last few years.

Everybody has their own challenge in life to deal with but as my comedic friend, Larry Horowitz, says;

Everyone has their private hell but I wouldn’t trade mine for anyone else’s.”

As comedians, we tend to be fun and funny on the outside, especially when things go dark. We use humour as a coping mechanism.

As author Erma Bombeck once said, There a thin line that separates laughter and pain. Comedy and tragedy. Humour and hurt. That is definitely true. I will tell you comedians are the first people to make a joke when things go off the tracks.”

Two Canadian comedians died recently of cancer – Tim Steeves and Alan Park. I worked with both of them over the years. Great guys. They didn’t deserve to die with so much more love and laughter left to give. At their memorials, many comedians spoke. What would normally be a sad event quickly turned into a roomful of laughter. It was almost a roast. It was all meant out of love but again, that’s how comedians cope. When everyone else is crying, we find the joke. Life is too sad and almost senseless without humour. Your friends are dead from cancer. Two months ago, they were helping you write a punchline. RIP Alan and Tim.

In honouring the humour of my friends and family who have passed, I promise to keep laughing and keep moving forward, especially during times of fear and/or sadness. Not only for myself but also for those around me. I promise to bring the ‘haha back to my podcasts, blogs, vlogs, presentations, etc. as I try to use this gift to stay on course.

If you would like to catch up on any of my other Laugh Long and Prosper episodes, voted one of the best podcasts of 2021 in Canada by CTV, check me out.

Judy Croon  On Spotify, Soundcloud ,Amazon, FM PLAYER

Until next time folks, Laugh Long and Prosper!

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This blog and podcast is sponsored by: by TROOL Social Media. TROOL Social knows that to be visible online you have to be fully committed and congruent in who you are and what you do. You must adopt the right mindset. Steer your ship to the SS Optimization & TROOL Social to get you sailing ‘on course’! Check ’em out!

TROOL Social Media your digital integration specialists on the online seas
Guest comedian| writer |Hirut Comedy Club founder Carolyn Bennett

Guest comedian| writer |Hirut Comedy Club founder Carolyn Bennett

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.

It was voted one of the top podcasts of 2021 by CTV. You can listen to this episode on the podcast too!

‘Laugh Long And Prosper ‘with Comedian and Writer Carolyn Bennett by Judy Croon

 

Today’s guest is Carolyn Bennett.

Carolyn Bennett is a writer and comedian. Selected TV credits include This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CBC COMICS, and The NHL Awards. Produced CBC radio plays include Mixed Media, and Pure Convenience. Produced stage plays include Cancel Culture, Runtkiller, Canis Familiaris, and Double Down Helix. She won the 2013 TIFF Studio Screenwriting Intensive Jury Prize, and was a member of the 2017 Thousand Islands Playwrights’ Unit where her play The Monarchists received a public workshop.

 

Bennett’s 2019 debut novel, Please Stand By, was published by Vancouver’s Now or Never. She is currently working on a collection of short stories, and was mentored by writer K.D. Miller. Her story Be My Zero-Sum was recently published in the Quarantine Review, and another story, Moral Support Desk, is upcoming in Canadian Notes and Queries. She freelances for the Toronto Star, Canadian Immigrant, among others.

 

She had a brief stint as a government writer and speechwriter, for which she will receive a small pension, which she finds amazing.

To find out about Hirut comedy nights, go to http://www.Hirut.ca

 

To reach Carolyn, you can go to http://www.CarolynBennettWriterComic.Com

To find out about Carolyn’s play ‘Cancel Culture’ go to http://www.AlumnaeTheatre.com

To find out about her memoirs writing course, go to http://www.BacklaneStudios.ca

To find out about her book, ‘Please Stand By’ go to https://www.amazon.ca/Please-Stand-Carolyn-Bennett/dp/1988098858

Until next time folks, laugh long and prosper!

Judy-Croon-laugh-long-pro$per-sig-logo

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The Incredible Benefits of Laughter Yoga

The Incredible Benefits of Laughter Yoga

In 1998, Dr. Madan Kataria, a medical doctor from Mumbai, was studying the health benefits of laughter.

He decided to do some tests with his patients.

First, he asked them to stand in a circle and tell jokes or funny stories for ten minutes once a day.

Everyone was laughing and having a good time.

Unfortunately, after two weeks, material ran dry and jokes started turning dark and offensive.

The patients complained and wanted to quit.

Dr. Kataria begged them to stay while he worked on a solution.

Then, Dr. Kataria asked the patients to fake their laughter for one minute. He wanted them to laugh loudly at nothing.  Initially, the patients thought it was awkward but then the laughter caught on and very quickly, it became contagious. The patients laughed uncontrollably for ten minutes. Snorts, guffaws and yes, even the occasional fart led to more uproarious laughter.

Dr. Kataria discovered that whether his patients genuinely laughed at something or pretended to laugh at something, their bodies and brains reacted in the same positive way.

Perhaps, more importantly, Dr. Kataria discovered the medical benefits of sustained laughter. Sustained is the key word. It’s hard to laugh continuously for ten minutes (unless, of course, you’re watching one of my comedy specials). However, we can fake our laughter for longer periods of time.

By encouraging participants to prolong their fake laughter to improve their well-being, Dr. Kataria quickly became known as the Guru of Giggling. He named the program of study

‘Laughter Yoga’.

Since his first laughter yoga class, Dr. Kataria has trained many other laughter yoga coaches.

Now there are over 10,000 laughter yoga clubs in various countries including:  America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, China and Africa.

Dr. Kataria has also worked with the Indian Army.  There are YouTube videos that show these military men who are initially laughing because they have to and then because they want to.

Danny Singh, an English teacher in the UK, uses laughter yoga with his students to help them open up the creative side of their right brain.  I also use laughter yoga to warm up my stand-up comedy students.

Laughter yoga is being sought out by businesses, schools and hospitals around the world as participants learn the physical and psychological rewards of a good guffaw

HOW TO DO LAUGHTER YOGA

Obviously, I don’t have to convince you of the medical benefits of laughter. Perhaps you want to sign up for a laughter yoga class in your city? If you do, here are a few exercises that you might expect to see:

A Greeting Laugh

Participants laugh while shaking hands.

A Shy Laugh

Participants greet each other while hiding their faces behind their hands and laughing.

A Cellphone Laugh

Participants laugh uncontrollably while having an imaginary conversation on their phones.

A Gibberish Laugh

Participants make up a language and laugh as they are pretending to share jokes.

The No Money Laugh

Participants pull out their empty pockets and laugh at the fact that they have little or no money.

Whether it’s a shy laugh, a gibberish Laugh or a no money laugh, Dr. Kataria has certainly contributed a lot of laughs and benefits to our well-being.

What started as an experiment with a few patients has blossomed into an exercise that is now practiced by thousands globally every day. In 1998, Dr. Kataria created World Laughter Day,which is celebrated around the world on the first Sunday of every May.

Dr. Kataria says, “In laughter yoga, we don’t laugh because we are happy, we are happy because we laugh.”  He adds, “I have not seen anybody dying of laughter, but I know millions who are dying because they are not laughing.”

If there was ever a time that the world needed more laughter, it’s certainly now.

Thank-you, Dr. Kataria.

judy-sig-laugh-long-prosper

Laugh Long and Prosper, Folks.

Until next time, I’m Judy Croon.

 

Losing a Pet During Covid

Losing a Pet During Covid

I recently interviewed my dear friend and mindfulness coach, Cara Coulson, from Pearl Mindfulness, on my podcast Laugh Long and Prosper. Cara works out of the GTA. She teaches at Durham College and works with a group called Psychology for Growth.

This means that most of Cara’s services are covered under insurance plans, which is a big help for a lot of folks.

Cara is a regular on my podcast and she has recently been helping a lot of people get through Covid with her advice, knowledge and humour. Recently, however, Cara lost two of her beloved pets. I know there are a lot of folks like myself who have been leaning extra hard on their ‘furry people” to help them get through the pandemic.  I know that a lot of pet lovers can relate to losing a beloved pet. Here is part of our ‘Pawdcast’

Judy: Hi Cara, welcome to Laugh Long & Prosper. Today is Monday which means it’s time for Just Another Mindful Monday.  Over the past months, we have been talking about using mindfulness as a Covid coping mechanism. By the way, I read a fantastic article in the Globe and Mail awhile back that called 2020 the ‘Year of The Dog’ because so many people got dogs and other pets during Covid. The article noted that pets really help to alleviate a lot of the day-to-day stress brought on by the pandemic.

Something happened to you recently. I wanted to talk to you about it at the time, but I knew that you needed time to grieve. If you can, please tell folks what happened to the furry people in your family.

Cara: Well, our almost 14-year-old dog, Flynn, passed recently. We woke up one morning and we went for a little walk. He stumbled a bit. He was almost blind at that point. As the day went on, he was just wasn’t himself – he was crying a little more. I had planned with the vet beforehand. She had actually told me that Flynn might have a month or eight weeks – she wasn’t sure but we were approaching end of life.  I was just grateful to experience every day with him that I could.

As the day went on, by about noon, I contacted the vet’s office. We knew it was his last day. Before we took him to the vet, my oldest daughter and I gave him lots of hugs and told him that we loved him. We took lots of pictures with him.

That dog truly carried me through the absolute most challenging parts of my life. He carried me through a divorce. He carried me through my kids going to two different homes. He carried me through all my needs and neediness. He walked many miles with me. There is one path in particular that I call The Trail of Tears because, at that point and time, emotionally, it had to come out of me and he was there.

But really, truly it was my time to be there for him. I had prepared for months. Then exactly one week later, one of our cats, Rusty (my daughter’s therapy pet) started to act really weird. We thought he might be grieving the loss of Flynn because he and Flynn were really good pals. For example, when there was a thunderstorm, Rusty would get right next to Flynn and he would snuggle right onto his back. Rusty was a big orange cat big and he would do this big, big purr. If he had a voice, it would be like Morgan Freeman. (laugh)

Judy: (laugh) What kind of voice would Flynn have?

Cara: Flynn was Irish.

Judy: So, would it be like Liam Neeson?

Cara: Well, he was also anxious so probably more like Tom Cruise in Far and Away.

A fighter but a real butter ball inside.

Morgan Freeman was always with Flynn. I posted some pictures on Facebook. In the end, both cats (Rusty and Hank) would get into Flynn’s bed with him by the fireplace.

Those three were the best crew.

So, it really came as a surprise one week after Flynn passed, when I had to take Rusty to emergency. Within two hours, the vet discovered that he had an orange- sized tumour in his chest. Sadly, we had to let him go as well.  There was no choice.

Within a week exactly we lost two of the fur fellows.

Initially, I kind of built up this huge resiliency to move forward- to kind of truck along and ‘Winston Churchill’ it.Keep calm and carry on.

I had close friends who said, “Cara you are handling this really well”.

I surprised myself.

I prepared myself for Flynn. Rusty was a bit of a shock. I thought I was okay.

However, a month later, a series of events brought up a trigger for all of the pain.

Prior to that moment, I had put everything into a box. Besides, I work with mindfulness every day!

Over time, it kind of accumulated.

I wasn’t expecting it and then one evening, I just had to let it out.

Tears for Fears have this great song called Shout, about primal scream therapy. I mean, for me, it wasn’t screaming- it was just crying. It had to happen. From a mindful perspective, I had to just let it be instead of judging it. I had to let it come out. That really kind of got me over the hump.

Mindfully speaking, we learn more and then we grow.

I went onto a healthier part of the grieving process.

Funny, at the time, I didn’t even think I was grieving.

I’m wondering if there are a lot of people out there who are also losing their pets, family members and feeling very isolated and alone right now with Covid-19?

Funerals are very odd.

Even when you have to take your pet for that ‘end of life’ final moment, you are wearing a mask and you’re only allowed to have a couple of people there.  You can’t have the same kind of grief process that many of us would utilize with our friends and family. There are no hugs or touching.

For some people, it’s even harder. On top of Covid, behind closed doors, they could be dealing with abuse or the loss of a parent or being sick and not being able to see anyone.

These are very strange times indeed.

I’ve noticed many people getting jealous or angry that somebody got a vaccine or a ‘better’ vaccine. Who would have ever thought we would have the words AstraZeneca or Moderna in our vocabulary?

Now here we are and we are living it.

Some people are cycling through being angry at the government. Other people are cycling through being angry at their place in life.  They’re saying things like, “How come that community got their shot and my community didn’t?”

It really has been an experience.  Of course, you try to bring that mindfulness piece in to just allow the moment and practice self-compassion. From a mindful perspective, we are just all struggling. These ARE hard times.

Our life after Covid-19… is it ever really truly going to be the same? There’s that loss of innocence, a loss of goodness.  We have to allow ourselves to let it happen and just BE with it. We have to learn how to be compassionate with ourselves and with others.

Yes, Hank is still with us.  He is the final rider of the fur posse.

Judy: Are you going to get another rider for Hank?

Cara: Yes, we’ve considered it. He did go through his own kind of kitty grief but over the last couple of days, he has come back to his Hank the Hellion self (laugh).

We had considered getting a friend for Hank and then got hit with “it will never be the same as it was”.  I think many of us are going through that thought as well with Covid. Our life is never going to be truly the same.

I can’t recreate the posse but can Hank have a new friend?

Would it be a different thing? Sure.

Would he be like that old dog in The Incredible Journey? Hank would be like the wise old golden retriever. (laugh)

Judy: I cannot watch animal shows and movies. They are too sad!

Cara: Have you ever seen Phar Lap?

Judy: No, I hear it’s horrific. It’s an ugly cry.

Cara (laughs) Another ugly cry movie if we are looking to relieve some tears during Covid is called Hachi: A Dog’s Tale.

Judy: Forget it. I read the premise and I was crying. Worse – it’s a true story! I need a drink.

Cara: The dog keeps waiting…

Judy: I KNOW. Stop talking about it. I can’t handle it.

I can’t watch anything with animals. I was watching Goliath with Billy Bob Thorton.

It’s a totally violent series, but my only thought throughout it was, “Please don’t let anything happen to that little stray dog!”

Thankfully, it didn’t. Body count was like 8000 bad guys but the stray dog lived.

Cara: Have you watched shows recently and noticed that sometimes the best actor IS the dog?

Judy: I’ll let you in on a little secret. This is how I get through watching animals in TV shows and film. I always think of the animal handler sitting two feet away from the camera.

Whenever the animal looks sad or happy, there is an animal handler giving them a command and a treat afterwards. That’s how I think I cope. Meanwhile, I’m in therapy for six months.

Cara, on a serious note, I want to thank you for sharing your wonderful story and inspiring words about pets, love, courage, mindfulness and getting through Covid.

Cara: Thank- you Judy. I just want to say one last thing. There is nothing better than the unconditional love of a fur friend. Do it. Go out there. Rescue, volunteer, join an organization.  See what you can do. These pets aren’t expecting anything from you but they will bring you happiness- especially during this time of hardship and beyond. They will get you outside and will get you caring for something other than yourself!

Judy: You are absolutely right! On a lighter note, before I let you go, what kind of voice does Hank have?

Cara: That’s easy. Clint Eastwood.

Judy: (laughs) Nice! Thank- you, Cara Coulson. You just ‘made my day’.

To our listeners, thank you so much for joining us.

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.

Laugh Long and Prosper is shelf help with a smile, stressbusters with a smirk, and information with a wink wink. You get the point. On Mondays, I host the podcast Just Another Mindful Monday. The full podcast interview with Cara Coulson aired Monday May 10th, 2021 and is available online here.

If you would like to reach Cara Coulson, here is her contact info.

Email: PearlMindfulness@gmail.com

Website Pearl Mindfulness

 

Until next time folks,

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