We'd been dating a couple months when we had our first "fight" though it was more of a disagreement/discussion...and I was clearly winning. Jim stops mid sentence and says, "you know what this is?" No. "It's our first fight!" How could I continue to try to win after that? We both laughed at the silliness of the moment. It was a ridiculous thing to fight over...because I'd already won. It was over a girl...or rather a picture of a girl....and yep, I won! ;)
Laughter has been a bit part of us since we started. I'm so happy laughter continues in our home every day. Our house is filled with kids all the time, and not just our own crew. Last weekend we had a party with about 15 teenagers here. We couldn't help but smile and laugh along with these great kids. I don't know how much weight a sofa can hold but they sure tested it out with an entire group dog pile.
Laughter and a good sense of humor are so very important to survival, in my opinion. Laughter really does heal the soul, I've read articles in medical magazines that discuss attitude and sense of humor helping the physical healing process. It discussed how two patients with the same diagnosis react differently. Both were given the same medicine and in about the same physical shape, the biggest difference was that one had a more positive nature and a good sense of humor than the patient that is quite often serious and laughs less.
Laughter is almost always good. I sometimes laugh at the wrong times and the more I try to stop, the more I laugh. When I was 17 I got in so much trouble for something, I forget what I did but whatever it was really upset my dad. He was giving my list of punishments and threats and the angrier he got the redder his face got, the more his head shook. I knew I shouldn't be laughing and I really tried to stop. I was even biting the inside of my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my mom shaking her head but she was laughing at me too. I'd backed up against the wall and my dad walked closer and poked his finger in my chest and said, "Do you understand me young lady?!" I tried so hard to swallow my nervous laughter but as I opened my mouth a laugh escaped so I closed it again and just shook my head. Finally, mom came to my rescue. She was a bit better at controlling laughter that I was. She put her hand on my dad's arm and said, "I think she gets it. Let her go to her room and think about it." I then went in my room and cried, thinking "why couldn't THIS have been my reaction!"
There's a song in Mary Poppins called, I Love to Laugh. Mary takes the kids to see her uncle who he laughs all the time. He tells jokes to make the kids laugh and they all float to the ceiling. The more they laugh, the higher they go. I love the visual...the more we laugh, the higher our spirits go, the happier our moods become. The song is about different kinds of laughs. That is by far my favorite song from Mary Poppins. I think I want that on my epitaph. "She loves to laugh"
Laughter is one of my favorite sounds. I'm not as funny as my brother, or no longer as outwardly goofy as my son but I love to make others laugh. If I tell a story that makes someone laugh, it warms my heart. For years, I'd look up dumb jokes, the dumber the better, and share them with my family at dinner. Now Courtney, my soon to be high school graduate, has taken over that role. Her jokes are great the only problem is we can rarely understand the punch line because she's laughing too hard for us to understand it. And it's okay because the end result is to get us to laugh, which we do...just at her and not the joke.
Here's a video of my Becca. She's the happiest 10 year old I know. Every year when her teachers and friends write notes to her, the notes are always something about her giggle. I hope she never loses her sweet, free, open, giggle. What she's laughing at are her brothers. Hunter is laying on his back reading and Nate sees an opportunity to tackle. He jumps on Hunter's stomach who has decided to make up a song about Nate. Laughter + music= our happy noises.
I hope you find something to laugh about today. I mean really laugh about. A full on belly laugh, one that you have to take a deep cleansing breath to recover from. Those are the best kind of laughs.
As you know, sometimes your brother forgets his lyrics. I love his songs so much, I have them committed to memory. One year @ WoodFlock, he called me down to sing Skippy & Rover with him. Well, I'd had a glass of wine or two and was feeling pretty good so I started pantomiming his lyrics. Ants started laughing so hard at my actions he would have to start the song over again. The harder the audience laughed, the more outrageous my actions got! I wrote him an e-mail afterwards about how thankful I was that he shared his stage and allowed me to hamm it up. There's such a wonderful feeling when you can make someone laugh, it's undescribable.
ReplyDeleteI believe I WON that fight! You do always make me laugh or smile and that is a perfect day! I look forward to many more belly laughs with you as we grow old together.
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