Day 180: One of the many things my mama taught me was that we need laughter most when it’s the hardest to accomplish. Across the ages, we humans have found our age to be fraught with troubles and hardships. What a blessing it is to identify what sparks our sense of humor and use that spark to begin a brush fire of laughter. I watched my mother grapple with her mortality and the ill health that was shortening her stay here. She did it by using that spark to light a roaring blaze around her. She believed in the healing power of laughter. I envisioned her while I wrote this passage about a new character:
“Her laughter swelled from the depths of her soul in happy tides, crashing, wave upon wave, across the shoreline of her face. Her entire body joined in the laughter, joy exciting her every molecule until it couldn’t be contained within her skin. It bubbled up and out from every extremity. When my cheeks began to ache, I realized her laughter was contagious, and I’d caught the wave.”
Golda Meir said “Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.”
True. It takes one extreme to fully appreciate the other. Meir was the Israeli prime minister, so I bet she would have liked this joke - it always makes me laugh, and it’s a bonus because it’s Foodsday!
Every time I eat Middle Eastern food, I feel falafel.
Come on, just laugh. If that didn’t do it, find something that will spark a blaze of laughter for you. Ride the wave. You deserve it.
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