How to Find Laughter Every Day
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“The most wasted of days is one without laughter.” ~ Nicolas Chamfort
We can get very serious about life. It’s like there are whispers that tell us how important it is to be sober and serious. Take things seriously. Don’t relax. It’s all very important.
But is it?
One of my greatest goals in life is to find true lightness of being. I have a tendency to feel overly responsible for everyone’s happiness. Even if I have actually found happiness, then the whispers say that I must share it with others — affect their lives, make the world a better place.
Of course, if there is anything I have learned in 50 years is that this is impossible. It’s an endless make-work project that actually only feeds our egos by telling us that we have more wisdom and information that that other guy… which is just not true. They have exactly what they need for their journey. And we have what we need. Period. If they ask, then answer. But beyond that? Just live and let live.
This is what I’ve found gives me the freedom to laugh and enjoy life no matter what is “going on in the world”.
Laughter is literally the greatest fun our body, mind and spirit can have. To sit with friends and break out into a huge belly laugh is just about as much joy as a person can have. To get to that point that you can’t stop and your stomach is hurting and you’re saying, “Stop, stop, I can’t breathe!”… This is my idea of a fun Saturday afternoon!
OK. So, now I have this song in my head:
The funny thing about laughter is that it can happen any time — especially at funerals — especially if you’ve been to a lot of them! When I was 18, my friend’s baby died. From there people just started dying all around me — uncles, grandparents, parents of friends… The next seven years were so full of funerals, that my family would gather in the basement of whatever church we were in and all of a sudden a whole new brand of humour arose — funeral humour. We would find ourselves standing in a circle…
