The Gift of Laughter

 This week's quotation is very well-known. It says, "Laughter is music for the soul."

I believe that is so true. Laughter can uplift us and contribute to a general sense of well-being. It can bring us out of sadness or despondency and be a source of joy and connection.

Children seem to laugh far more easily than adults do... I rarely have a good belly laugh these days. But it happened yesterday. I am staying with a very dear friend for some R&R, and we were playing a game of canasta. Normally, we are fairly evenly matched and it is a [very amicable, yet intensely competitive] fight to the finish. But this particular game, *every* hand of mine was brilliant and *every* hand of hers was lousy - she actually had negative scores twice! We ended up weeping with laughter and it felt so good.

Why do adults laugh less than children? It takes very little to bring forth laughter in any of my grandsons, but although I smile often, feel grateful often, I laugh rarely. And the same applies to most of the adults of my acquaintance. Is it that we are bowed down under our responsibilities, less able to live in the now and appreciate the funny moments which come our way? I think it might be. Most of the "humour" I see on Facebook seems to be satirical, rather than simply amusing (except for the cat videos). Maybe that's just my personal feed, and yours is full of genuine laugh out loud posts. I hope so.

Yes, life is serious. Yes, we all have responsibilities. But, I think it would be so good for us (certainly good for me) if we were able to let go of it all (at least, temporarily) and simply laugh. I believe our souls would thank us for it.