Two Books, Two Teachers with Beth Duhon (Part 2) | 174

In Part 1, Debbie and Beth shared the personal journeys behind their books. In this episode, the focus shifts to real-world impact and practical takeaways. This conversation centres on what happens after the book is written — when readers begin to change, reflect, and take action.

Using the same “my turn, your turn” format, Debbie and Beth respond to three powerful questions. They share reader stories that stopped them in their tracks and they reflect on the practices that matter most. They also discuss what they wish they had known before writing.

As always, each question ends with one clear takeaway. One small action you can take this week.

This episode delivers encouragement, honesty, and practical ideas for music educators, creatives, and anyone working toward sustainable wellbeing. Small steps still matter. The ripple effects are real.

Let’s jump in.

Links Mentioned in the Episode:

Crescendo Music Education Podcast Episodes with Beth Duhon: 

• 🎙️ Intro to “The Wellbeing Series”
• 🎙️ Rest and Recharge
• 🎙️ The Commute
• 🎙️ Fuel Your Body
• 🎙️ Vocal Health
• 🎙️ Movement
• 🎙️ The Comparison Trap

💻 Principal Lamb

📘 Happier Music Teacher: 50 Days to Being a Happier Music Teacher at Home and at School – by Beth Duhon

📘 Stalagmite Effect by Debbie O’Shea

Where to find me: 

Crescendo Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crescendocommunity
Official Crescendo Page: https://www.facebook.com/CrescendoMusicEd/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CrescendoMusicEd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/crescendomusic
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-o-shea-62a3741b/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CrescendoDeb

Introduction 

Gday, I’m Debbie O’Shea and this is the Crescendo Music Education Podcast – Episode 174.

This podcast is being recorded on the lands of the Turrbal people. I acknowledge them as the traditional owners of the land and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. They were the first music makers on this land.

Debbie O’Shea  

Welcome to the Crescendo Music Education Podcast to Beth Duhon. Hello Beth, welcome back.

Beth Duhon  

Thank you. Great to be back Debbie.

Debbie O’Shea  

Now if you did not listen to the previous episode, pop back. Have a listen. We’re going to do a little more digging into the practical impact of writing our books and getting our books into the world, because it’s a pretty big thing to do. It’s a big commitment and it’s quite an emotional roller coaster I found, to be writing a book. But let’s talk about impact and practical takeaways. So the first question I’m going to throw to Beth. Ready? 

Beth Duhon  

Ready.

Debbie O’Shea  

The reader email that affected you deeply, maybe even made you cry a little bit. Can you share some messages that you got?

Reader Messages That Made a Lasting Impact

Beth Duhon  

I sure can. Like I said, sometimes podcasting or book writing can be lonely. You’re putting a lot out into the world and you don’t always get the feedback. I like to joke that I have two super fans, but it’s probably true. One of my super fans, like I said, once again, not telling too much of her story to tell, but she lost some students this summer in a real tragic way and had to go on. She said August, I’m gonna get sad now. August was feeling like the end of the year already. It was just really hard to get up the gumption to start the school year and have the beginning of school year energy. You felt deflated and sad, and it was just a cloud that hung over the school year. She’s a long term friend, she’s a long term podcast listener, she was an early adopter of the book and she’s told me that my wisdom, which it always floors me when someone tells me I have wisdom, that my wisdom was helping her through a really difficult school year, and she called me the amazing Beth, which she’s so sweet and so kind that when she’s hurting like that and in a bad way, she’s the first to encourage me with something like that.

Debbie O’Shea  

Oh, and how wonderful to know that you helped, I think that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re helping, supporting. I know Crescendo Music Education’s byline that I wrote quite a while ago, and every now and then I think should I change it. But it’s connecting, supporting and inspiring music educators, and I think that’s what both of our books do. I hope. Extra support.

Beth Duhon  

Life is heavy. When we talk about some of these things, daily life is a lot, but when you go through something heavy, it’s nice to have something extra to rely on. Like I said, I think some of those prayer episodes people will listen to on repeat just because they want some positivity in their ear and on the way to work. So let me turn to you. What reader email made you cry Debbie?

Debbie O’Shea  

Well, in the last episode I shared about the teacher using it in that wellbeing group, that was pretty magic. 

Beth Duhon  

That’s really great. 

Debbie O’Shea  

I might just read out a couple of short emails if I may?

Beth Duhon  

Go for it. 

Debbie O’Shea  

Because it’s better in their words. So Amy Maxwell, thank you, said I very much enjoyed reading your book all the way from Alberta, Canada. Hi, other side of the world. Oh, that’s the other thing that blows me away, is the geography side of things. You don’t know where it’s going. I think that’s magic, anyway sorry, back to the email. I purchased your eBook several months ago in August and still find myself rereading sections as they really resonate with me. It’s nice to be able to go back to answer the questions you have at the end of each chapter for your readers. Thank you for being such an inspiration. Thank you Amy, but like it just makes your day, doesn’t it? You go, oh my goodness, that’s what I want to do. I want to inspire. I want to help, I want to support and you said I’ve done it. Thank you.

Beth Duhon  

Well, if you’re like me Debbie, I’m a words of affirmation person when they talk about the love languages, and so I can live off a good compliment for a week. I don’t want to be as needy as I am about that, but I’m telling you, if you send me, a lot of mine have been messages, but even a review or something, it’s just a god breeze. It always comes at just the right time when I’m feeling low. That’s when I’ll see something like that, or hear something like that, just when I need it.

Debbie O’Shea  

Yes, and I think that we all should take time to take that on board, because I think it’s very easy as a teacher when you might get the complaining email because you didn’t do something right, or someone got left off the email list or whatever. You take that to heart straight away. I think we need to spend more time taking to heart all of the wonderful messages that happen.

Beth Duhon  

I agree, and reviews are life for authors and podcasters and so if that helps you to do the right thing for somebody, yes, reviews are life.

Debbie O’Shea  

I love it. Oh, actually, before I read the second email, let me put that in the show notes Beth, I’ll put in some links where people might be able to rate and review the podcasts and our books and that sort of thing, so let’s put some links in the show notes, in case people want to come and do the right thing.

Beth Duhon  

That would be fabulous, because I am not raking in the reviews on F-flat Books or Amazon, so if anyone would like to take the time to write a review, I would cherish it.

Debbie O’Shea  

Okay, wonderful. We’ll get all those links in the show notes. I’ll just read this lovely email from Michelle Lupton, thank you Michelle. Okay, as a fellow music educator I found The Stalagmite Effect both inspiring and deeply relatable. Debbie O’Shea beautifully captures the true essence of teaching, the patience, persistence and quiet growth that often happens unseen, just like the slow, steady formation of a stalagmite. The Stalagmite Effect is a beautiful honest and deeply personal reflection on life, teaching creativity and growth. Debbie shares so many practical gems, from grabbing the glimmers to habit stacking, mindfulness, gratitude, importance of kindness, celebrating small wins and harnessing the quiet power of effort and consistency. Her lifelong passion for music education, her commitment to empowering colleagues and her love for nurturing students shine through every page. Her journey is inspiring, authentic and brave. Debbie reminds us that real growth, both in music and in life, happen one small, intentional step at a time.

Beth Duhon  

I could live two weeks off that compliment. Debbie, that’s amazing.

Debbie O’Shea  

I think I’m going to live a year off that one. Thank you, Michelle. It means the world doesn’t it? Once you know that all of this work, because it’s a lot of work, I wrote my book every day. So I had a term off, 10 weeks of school off, plus the Christmas holidays before and the Easter holidays after. I wrote every day, not all day, every day. I don’t think I’m capable of that. It’s just such hard, consistent work. The way I did it, it was. Because I went I’m writing a book, surprise. Hadn’t really intended to do that on my leave, but I was and then I would say, I’ve run out of things to say. I’d go to sleep and I would wake up and go, oh, oh, I know what it needs. Something happened in my sleep time so often over the term, and it just changed shape and, Oh this is important. I need a section on this. I just let it sort of grow naturally. But it’s all about hopefully making impact.

Beth Duhon  

What I noticed as I was rereading it this morning is it’s so dense, in a good way, it’s just so value packed. There’s a checklist and you can tell that you listen widely and you read widely and song quotes. It’s not just a throwaway. It’s well researched. You get a lot of value for the book. Sometimes you, I don’t know if you ever read some celebrity books, and you’re like, Wow, huh, that didn’t take you so long to write. It feels a little light. This does not feel, I mean, it’s an easy read, but I think there’s a lot of depth there. 

Debbie O’Shea  

Thank you.

Beth Duhon  

I believe every word, and it does not just apply to Music teachers. So I think that’s really neat, the way that you did the broader scope for it as well.

Debbie O’Shea  

Thank you. I love it and I love that you mentioned the song quotes, because I started writing and the lyrics of a song would, the opening line of a song would pop in my head and I’d go I’m a music teacher, I’m going to include that. And I checked it wasn’t breaking copyright just do a quote of a little bit of a song. Then I went, No, this has got to be a sort of a theme that runs through, because even if you’re reading this, not as a music teacher, you would have heard most of the songs that I referenced. So I thought that was a little bit of a quirk in there that made it a little more personal.

Beth Duhon  

I bet that you write the way you talk.

Debbie O’Shea  

I do.

Beth Duhon  

That’s a big compliment that I can get as an author, is that it sounds conversational. It sounds like me. I’m sure you burst out in song quotes all day long. So it was natural to include that in your writing.

Debbie O’Shea  

Yeah, there’s a song for that. It’s like our life, we can do that. I can tell you that quite a bit of my song was actually written here. Not bit of my song. Did I say song? Sorry, my book was written on my phone and on my morning walks, I would go, oh, oh. I would put on, actually, it started with the Voice app, and then I just went straight into ChatGPT or Claude, and I just did the microphone on the keyboard and spoke it in. Do not change a word of this and just listen and record it for me, and away I would go. I even got an app on my laptop that was a voice recorder for a little while there. So not all of it, because I do type quite quickly too, like I type very well, but it’s definitely conversational and I think that makes it easy to read, this sort of book should be I think. That’s why yours is easy to read and mine is hopefully easy to read. So before we get on to the next question, I’m going to ask our listeners a similar question, can you think of someone in your life that needs to hear about the impact they’ve had on you? Send them a quick message. It could be a prac teacher you had, or a parent that really helped out with your music supporters group, or a principal, like if you had Principal Lamb, you’d probably reach out and say, Hey. Is there someone that you can reach out to? Because those messages mean so much, and that person might not have had a particularly good day, and you will just give them that little glimmer that they need to grab onto. So now the next question. We’ve got a couple more questions for this episode. Now, if you could share just one practice from your book, which one would it be? Gee, that’s a hard question isn’t it?

Beth Duhon  

It is a hard question. So I’m going to cheat and say another one. But I think Sabbath rest has been huge for me, and it is not to be legalistic. It is a churchy word, but even if you’re not churchy, I still think there’s benefit there. That was one of the turning points in my life when I really started taking Sabbath seriously. Like I said, I tried to cheat it and work anyway on a Sunday, and it would come out in the seams. Then the rest of the week I would be edgier, I’d be more tired. As a believer, I feel like I need to trust God with some of the work and that if I rest that day, it will happen in the other six days. So for me, Sabbath rest, which could look different for everyone, and it’s definitely a practice, but that for me is huge. I remember when I first did it, it was awkward and I would just kind of pace the house like a caged animal. I just didn’t know what to do with myself. That was at our former house. That’s been forever. Now I just lean into it and I look forward to it every single week. So Sabbath all day long. So how about you Debbie?

Debbie O’Shea  

Oh, I love it. Well in the last episode I mentioned sleep would have probably been the thing, the habit, that little practice that I think has great implications. But I also think if I just shared one practice I’d go find the joy, grab the glimmers. Make the most of that little kid that’s picked up a pretty stone on the way to your classroom and gives it to you and you go, oh yeah, thank you. I’ll put it here so everyone can see it. Make the most of those moments where children and I say that as an educator, of course. So if you’re listening to this and you’re not a teacher, find the moments in whatever you’re doing. On your morning walk that flower, doesn’t that sound cliched, but you see that gorgeous bloom, that colour amongst the green, or find the joy and take time to notice it and allow it to build that positivity and I know that it sounds a bit cliche because of my book. But it is almost like its adding glimmers, colour or light or joy to who you are. So I’d say one practice would just be, find the joy, find the glimmers and intentionally take them on board.

Beth Duhon  

If I can piggyback off that. I so agree. Speaking as a teacher, I think you have to be careful online, because there are posts and groups where it can skew really negative and all of a sudden, everyone is just marinating in their misery and focusing on the downsides of the job all day.  I think when you start to hang out in those waters, you get more like those people you hang around and before you know it, if you look to be miserable, you can make yourself good and miserable. Like I said, you mentioned the cliche. I mean, I’d rather be positive than miserable. I’d rather look for the good than just stew in the yuck of the job. There’s no perfect job anywhere. So I think you get what you look for. There’s enough heartache and suffering and yuck in the world without seeking it out. I also, I’m very sunny about my media, almost to the point of being annoying Debbie, when people watch some really dark True Crime things, I don’t know is that really what I want to put in my mind and go to sleep thinking about at the end of the day is just the darkest, lowest part of humanity. It doesn’t mean I just sit and watch Disney princess movies all the time, where I don’t watch anything deeper than that. But I think you have to guard your mind and guard what you let into it. If you’re always listening to dark, depressing music and you’re in Facebook groups where everyone hates their job. Don’t be surprised when you’re depressed and hate your job.

Debbie O’Shea  

Yeah, yes and you are the sum total of the people that you hang out with. I have sort of got myself off a few Facebook groups over time, and you go, yeah, no, not so much for me. So yeah, I agree absolutely. So I think a little call out to our listeners before we go to the last question, what is one practice that you could commit to for the next seven days? Maybe it’s a Sabbath, a resting one day a week. My heavens I confess I do not do that. I should take that on board. Is it getting to bed earlier? Is it finding the joy? Or can you think of a different one that you’d like to do? But why not choose just one little practice that you can do to move towards more joy in your life? And now we’re up to our last question. I’m enjoying this Beth. I hope our listeners are.

Lessons Learned About Writing, Publishing, and Marketing a Book

Beth Duhon  

 I hope they are, but if not, we had a great time Debbie.

Debbie O’Shea  

That’s right it’s been good for us. Alright, here we go. What do you wish you’d known before you wrote your book?

Beth Duhon  

That books don’t market themselves. I think something that you do really well, because I follow you on social media and I listen to your podcast. You are very intentional about marketing your book, the one pager that you sent out, the effort that you put into it. Gone are the days where someone has a traditional publishing house and they do all the marketing and you just sit there and write your book and look cute. That’s just not our current climate. They are expecting that you are marketing your book and doing a lot of different channels for that, and there’s a lot of different noise out there about books, right? People necessarily don’t write a review, unless you request them to write a review. People are busy, and it’s not that they maybe even didn’t like the book, they just didn’t think to take the time to sit down and do that. So the one thing I think, is that books don’t market themselves. I think we both expressed a desire that we have other books in us, and part of my hesitation is like, dang, I really need to market the first one first before I dip my toe in the other waters. So just the marketing. It’s not even a drudge. It’s just the knowledge that there is a lot of marketing that takes place. It’s a crowded marketplace and to get people to part with their hard earned money for a book takes a lot of marketing and a lot of encouragement, a lot of word of mouth.

Debbie O’Shea  

A lot of work. I go through stages where I say, right, every day I’m going to do something. I have sent so many emails. I think I did send you a copy of the media kit I put together because I learned, oh, you should have a one pager about it. So I developed the one pager. But I am very lucky that I have a team of virtual assistants. Okay? They all work part time for me, I don’t employ them. 

Beth Duhon  

That’s great.

Debbie O’Shea  

They’re basically on, most of them are on two hours a week for me, that do various things. So I think there’s about five on my team.

Beth Duhon  

That’s amazing. 

Debbie O’Shea  

Yeah, I’ve had, can I say, every cent of Crescendo’s profit actually pays my team. I guess I can say that publicly, I don’t make money from Crescendo, but the money I make goes to my team so that I can do the things I do. It’s sort of a, I won’t say a vicious cycle because it’s not vicious, it’s fabulous. Anyway, that’s, sorry, that’s a different story. But even with trying to do all of this stuff and having various people helping me in little ways, the wonderful Katrina did some beautiful social media templates, so we just pop quotes in there. I’ve just started a TikTok channel for the book only. So because Book Tok is supposedly a fairly big thing, so I’ve got very deliberately, it’s not Crescendo Music Education and all the things I do. It’s just the book. I’ve just started that so that people might find me there. It’s constant. It’s mainstream media. It is so much work to do the marketing.  I do believe that even if you get a traditional publisher, and I will confess I have actually just sent off a submission, so I’ll know in a couple of months. Look, chances aren’t great. I’m not relying on it, but they make it very clear that even if you become one of their authors, they still rely on you and your platform to get the book out. So I’m sure they would do some marketing, obviously, but most of it still comes down to the author. So, yeah, like you said that the days of sitting at your beautiful, oh, roll top desk.

Beth Duhon  

It is nice.

Debbie O’Shea  

Yeah it is good. I found it in an antique shop. Sitting there, just being the muse and writing and then sending it off. No, it doesn’t happen like that. It is so much work. So, yeah, actually, I would, I would answer that too. I wish I knew how much work it would be to market for relatively small results. Was there anything else before I answer the question?

Beth Duhon  

No, I was going to add. This is just an aside. So I am very fortunate to be an F-flat Books author. Another F-flat Books author is Franklin Willis. We are well supported. It’s a great place to be. They are opening their submissions. I believe it’s January through March, and they are author centric music publishing, so they have a wide tent, digital children’s books. They are starting a print label. I’m so thrilled to be affiliated with them. Like I said, I think a lot of us as music teachers, we have a book in our heart, and we just talk ourselves out of it. F-flat Books has been supportive in every way. So that would be a great home for people who are listening to this and think they might want to be an author.

Debbie O’Shea  

Oh, I think that’s a great suggestion. Yes. I am only starting to look into F-flat Books. So if my Australian traditional publisher doesn’t happen, I might look into that myself. I think I’d only have one thing to add that I wish I knew before writing, apart from the fact how much it would cost me through self publishing. Let’s not talk about money, the disappointment, the highs and the lows. I wish I had known how low the low could be and how high the high could be. I guess I just wasn’t expecting it to be that emotionally dramatic. I think that’s what I’m trying to say. When I got my first report on how many books were sold I actually thought it would be more than that and I went into a bit of a funk for a few days. Nobody knew why, because I didn’t tell them. So, I guess I wish I’d known that it wasn’t going to be instant happy. No, I didn’t expect it to be instant happy. Yeah, I guess I’ll just leave it as I didn’t realise how low the lows would be. But of course, I also didn’t realise how high the highs would be. When I first opened the box and held a book baby, I just went Oh, I wrote that and my pictures on the back. Yes, it is so exciting and it feels sort of permanent and it feels real. So I guess I wish I had known how high and low the process would be.

Beth Duhon  

For sure. So F-flat Books is an e book publisher, but now they’re going into more print books, is my understanding. If I’m wrong, I was never here. But at the time I was on F-flat and I was having trouble getting my book into paperback on Kindle publishing. So it was just a little tiny fluke. It was really one keystroke that was given us trouble and it kept on getting bounced back. My family didn’t feel like a book was real until you could hold it in your hand. I felt very similar that there is nothing like holding that book in your hand and the first time I got to sign one, I mean, I was on cloud nine. I just thought that was the best. I don’t know about you, but I skew introverted, and I didn’t realise it so much until I got older. But for a podcaster, well, I can sit in a room and talk to myself, and I can pour out my thoughts and feelings in a book. So it’s actually kind of a great gig for an introverted person to be an author and a podcaster?

Debbie O’Shea  

Well, I’m sort of the quintessential extrovert, so for me to sit and write a book was, it was difficult. I’d much rather be with people and out there. So interesting, but we both got there in the end.

Beth Duhon  

What matters is that you get there, you mentioned the text to speech when you were writing. I actually used it as an editing tool, so I typed, but when I was going back to do editing. I went through and read it on text to speech and those errors will just pop out when you hear it like that, read back to you. So I had a traditional editor, but the text to speech was very helpful and I wouldn’t write anymore without it for the editing piece to catch some of those errors.

Debbie O’Shea  

Do you know what I have never thought of text to speech. I did speech to text. I’ve never thought of text to speech. Oh, oh, I’m so glad I talked to you. That’s gonna be a game changer if I ever get to the second book. It has a title. I know what I want to do, but I’m facing another year of full time teaching at two schools with so much on and campaigning for music education that’s fairly full on, and I think it will have to wait until I have more time, so maybe in a year. Mind you, I’m still jotting down points, but I’m not up to writing.

Beth Duhon  

I’m fully there. Yeah, go ahead.

Debbie O’Shea  

You’re fully there. So are you writing your next one?

Beth Duhon  

I am not, but I am there with you talking about having the delay. I think not every season is ours, I think for us, we don’t lack for ideas, right? But I think maybe not every season is our season, because if you put a book on top of what you have going on right now, I think you really would be miserable. But in a year, it might be the perfect time and it will just flow. You can spend the whole year percolating the idea. Here is what I have in my heart, and I have not done anything with it yet. This may not be the time. I’m pursuing national board certification, which is really time consuming. So I have forbidden myself from adding one more thing on my plate this year, but I would love to do a series of books about the music classroom through a teaching lens for children. So for like SEL stories, like SEL stories on how we behave when we folk dance, or how we behave when we’re singing by ourself, or how we play instruments correctly in the music room. But make it a social story where the teacher teaches the norms and music teachers could use it to teach those things. And now that I’ve spoken out in the air with you, I need to go with it.

Debbie O’Shea  

Yes, yes. Well, that’s a step towards accountability, isn’t it? That would be magic. You would possibly have to work with an illustrator for that do you think?

Beth Duhon  

I would need an illustrator. Like I said I’m running through a few things, it sounds like it tracks better with children as the characters than animals, but I have the sayings that I say repeatedly with my students in class. I mean, it is right on the tip of my tongue, but yes, I know that writing a children’s book is a totally different animal and to have the time and energy for it, I really want to knock out this national board, get it put to bed, and then look at that and focus on it.

Encouragement to Begin Your Own Creative Project

Debbie O’Shea  

Oh, that sounds amazing. Oh, I love it. Beth, I have so enjoyed our chat, and I’ve loved delving a little bit into our books. Of course, I know in my show notes I’ll put all of the links there so people can go and purchase the books. Write us reviews. Please, pretty please. Do all of those things, that would be amazing. Before we go, I’m going to just ask the readers, the listeners. I nearly said the readers, okay, well, hopefully they’re readers and listeners. I would like them to think about one creative project. By the way, it doesn’t have to be as big as a book. That’s big. Is there a creative project you’ve been putting off that it’s in your heart you really want to do it? I put off podcasting for, I don’t know, 5-6 years or something. I went I want to podcast, I want to and I just kept putting it off because it seemed too hard. It actually wasn’t, well not as hard as I thought it would be. So is there one creative project that you’ve been putting off, and maybe just take the first little step, just some research or an outline or a brainstorm, start a Word doc, stick it in a folder. Here’s my ideas. Take one little step towards your creative project. That’s my challenge to all of our listeners.

Beth Duhon  

I love that challenge. I think for us, especially the way we’re wired as music teachers, we were so in touch with that in college, right? We were just feeling creative and jazzed all the time, and then something about us just turned into this worker bee, where we just got up and went to work and came back. Then some of us might use a scripted curriculum or a pre packaged one and we’re not letting our creativity flow. For a lot of us, I think when it’s turned inward, we get sad or we get anxious or the not nice feelings when we’re not creatively putting things out when we’re very creative people. Even those of us who think we aren’t, we really are. So I love that challenge.

Debbie O’Shea  

I love that and I think that is a very positive, wonderful way to finish. Beth thank you so much for the chat today, I’ve enjoyed it immensely.

Beth Duhon  

Me too, friend. We’ve got to do this more often than every two years, but it’s been great. Thank you so much for having me.

Debbie O’Shea  

Yeah, maybe we’ll make it in a year, not two years next time.

Beth Duhon  

There we go.

Debbie O’Shea  

Make it annual. Thank you so much Beth.

Beth Duhon  

Bye Debbie, thank you. 

Sign-off

Thank you for joining me for this podcast. Don’t forget, you’ll find the show notes and transcript and all sorts of information on crescendo.com.au. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast or found it valuable, you might like to rate it on your podcast player and leave a review. I’d really appreciate it if you did. All I can be is the best version of me. All you can do is be the best you. Until next time, bye.

Just for Laughs

As we know, laughter relieves stress. Don’t lose sight of the funny side of life. I do have a few jokes about umbrellas, but they usually go over people’s heads.