#HappinessUnites Tour: Second Stop – Being Silly with Friends
We were born to be silly. When we were babies, the adults around us would do silly baby voices, sing or make faces—all just to make us smile, coo, and laugh. Babies give adults permission to be silly again. The older we get, the less silly we are because we spend so much time adulting. However, when we grew up most of us created a memory treasure chest full of silly adventures with our silly friends. A few of mine are sharable, not all, because let’s be honest… Sometimes we do silly things with friends who we share the “what we did together, stays between us” honor code. 🙂
Having Silly Friends Makes Great Memories
My favorite silly moments include making the living and dining room one big tent with my brother using every blanket we could find—we were amused, our mother not-so-much, going trick-or-treating with high school friends even though our parents said we were too old, and dressing up like a Palmer Girl then going to a golf range to hit balls – I’m pretty sure champagne was involved in this one.
Most silly moments aren’t really planned out too far in advance. Like a lot of our favorite memories they happen organically, or spur-of-the-moment fun. When we get older, we seem to have less time to be impulsive, but even if we have to plan a little more than silly requires, it’s still important to keep our silly side.
Silly Friends, Wine and Words
This story started in May at book club. I proudly showed the girls my #HappinessUnites sign that I made for Happiness Happens Month. Yes, I start working on it in the spring.
As I was standing at the head of my table proudly holding my sign, almost in unison several of the girls said, “You need to pose with that naked. You know, like the Calendar Girl pictures. In a big hat with pearls. It’ll make the theme go viral.” Then my silly friends said, “You don’t really have to be naked you can wear a tube top and shorts.” Everyone, but me, laughed while taking another sip of wine.
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I rolled my eyes but smiled and politely said, “I don’t think so.” Although, at my age anyone thinking a naked “appearance” of me would go viral feels a little like a compliment—even if it’s wishful thinking on everyone’s part. The conversation then turned to our book.
In June, several of us met up for a spa treatment and happy hour. This time they all said, “You have to pose naked with that poster.” Again, I laughed and said, “I really don’t think that’s a good idea.” The conversation continued and after our first drink they said, “We’ll do it with you.”
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Again, I laughed because my #HappinessUnites Tour list didn’t have standing naked behind a poster on it. But then I thought, oh yes, it does! This is definitely a “doing something silly with friends” experience.
Silly Friends And A Floppy Hat & Pearls Calendar Girl Photo Shoot
We decided to do a shoot before our next book club in July, which is aptly called Wine and Words—more proof that photo shoot or not, there’s always plenty of wine. We sipped wine, blew kisses, played with make-up, pearls and floppy hats. With the exception of the wine it was almost like we were kids playing dress-up. In short, we were being silly friends. (Even Tater had fun being silly with us!)
It’s days like this that make me feel like I’m the luckiest girl in the world. My besties pushed me to let my silly sign-holding, floppy-hat and pearls wearing fashionista show up for a photo shoot, and the best part is that they did it with me.
[Tweet “When was the last time you and your #besties did something really #silly? #HappinessUnites”]
The lessons I learned from my second #HappinessUnites Tour activity:
- It’s important to have great girlfriends that push you to be silly.
- As adults, we all too often, forgo fun—and we should be silly more often.
- Lighting is everything in a photo shoot – thanks Eddie and Rae for making us look good.
I hope our video inspires you do to something silly with your besties, and share it to inspire others to be silly more often. Or just share our video to get the silly ideas started. Who knows, maybe you and your besties will want to pose with your own #HappinessUnites signs—calendar girl style optional.
Written by Pamela Gail
Pamela Gail Johnson founded the Society of Happy People in 1998.
The Society is grounded on Pamela’s four key Practical Happiness Principles:
Pamela identified 31 Types of Happiness that are on the SOHP App Happiness Counter to make it easier to recognize moments of happiness.
Pamela also plans and organizes the Society of Happy People's annual happiness celebrations:
She's also a speaker, trainer, and author.
A few of her personal smile starters include her monthly book club, yoga, traveling and meeting new happy people.
I loved reading this story about Tour 2. It did remind me of the Calendar Girls. Weren’t they from the UK? I loved the stylish and smart hats and you can see by the smiles the carefree and fun attitudes everyone has holding their signs! Although uniquely different, all the ladies are equally awesome in their own fun way. It also reminded me of the commercial where the two women buy the purple hair coloring to wear at their high school reunion. Spontaneous fun!! Strong & Confident Women! When is the calendar coming out?