Some Days We Laugh

There is a wonderful saying, that begins "In our home, we do..." It goes on to list things a family does that makes them real.

In our home, we do laughter. Jay has a creative sense of humor. Our daughter, Zena (more on her name in future posts), is a fun person, always quick with a joke or a quirky video to share. Both Jay and Zena can make me laugh every day of my life. Lucky me.  I can laugh even when things are not funny.  I have been known to laugh inappropriately during tense staff meetings.

Laughing comes in degrees. There is laughing on the inside, with no discernible behaviors.  Then there is smiling, grinning, chortling (as in "HA"), chuckling, giggling, laughing, and belly laughing.

Then there is this other phenomena many people have experienced, especially when we are young.  It is when you laugh so intensely that you lose touch with your surroundings.  You become one with the laugh.  It takes over your mind and body. If you are standing, you sit. If you are sitting, you lie down.  You cross your legs because you just might pee. You snort. Or you make no sound because you can't catch a breath. Tears run down your face. It is truly an out of body experience.

This is not an everyday experience at our home which is probably a good sign of our emotional health. But it happens. And when it happens, it is pretty much out of the blue. It might be inspired by events in our lives, good times or stressful. Hard to know the precipitator.

When we get caught up in the way I have described, it is like our souls are speaking, with no words. No way to talk when you are laughing that hard. The closeness that is experienced  is almost impossible to put in words.  We become one. It is a melding of our spirits. And there is an aura that stays with us, that I believe becomes a part of who we are from that laugh forward.