The Gift of Laughter

     I took these two pictures of a metal tree of life which hangs in our house above our dream catcher tree near the fireplace.  It was a thank you gift  from my nephew Daron and his wife Julie for officiating at their wedding.  You will notice there is a small figure of a spry little elderly woman sitting under the tree, laughing.  Her hand is partially over her mouth, so you can't see how hard she is laughing.  

      Laughing, I think, is under-rated as a spiritual and a healing practice.   I am not speaking, of course, of cruel, mocking, or cynical laughter.  I am talking about the delighted chuckling or outright belly-laugh that comes when we don't take ourselves and our own perspectives and opinions too seriously.   I am blessed with a husband and four grown children who have a marvelous sense of humor, and when we are all together, there is a lot of laughter.  They have the gift of being able to see the funny side of situations which most people miss.  And in our family, its pretty hard to take yourself seriously for very long.  

     Laughter, studies tell us, is great for our bodies and our souls.  In fact, there are societies whose whole purpose is to get together and laugh, just for the fun of it.  Laughter is infectious, and sometimes you don't even have to have something particular to laugh at.  You laugh because others are laughing.  Its the sign of a light heart and a small ego.  If someone doesn't have a good sense of humor, and laugh even "in the dark" I am a little wary.  

      When I was in high school, it was the custom for the year book to feature the pictures of seniors with little sayings under them.  Mine was:  "Laughing at this, laughing at that, but nobody knows what she's laughing at!"  And I had a huge grin on my face.  I have been laughing at my own and people's foibles ever since.  I like to imagine that I have grown up to become like that little old lady under the Tree of Life,  just watching, and laughing a lot, because she knows deep down that Reality is Good and True, no matter the stories we make up about it.

     There is a River that runs by this Tree of Life, and to all who are going by in the little boats of their self-constructed lives I imagine that little grandmother is smiling and waving and singing, "Row row row your boat gently down the stream  merrily merrily merrily merrily

life is but a dream."   That profound and playful perspective is at the heart of all true laughter.