Laughter

When I was in high school I spent a lot of time at a friends house where her parents seemed to argue fairly often. This was not too new to me because I had had friends before who lived in homes a bit loud and crazy, so we would just hang out in my friend's room and talk about the pressing problems of the life of a high schooler. Yet, I can remember quite vividly one day in that house when we were just talking in my friend's room, as we usually did, and her parents were watching something together in the living room. It was nothing unusual until I heard the sound of both of her parents laughing together at whatever it was they were watching. To a normal person this may not mean much, but to me it became one of the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard.

I find that laughter is very underestimated in society. We all know it as a positive thing, but I can guarantee there is that one person in your life whose laugh is far from pleasing to the ears. We rarely talk about laughter in any other context than that of obnoxious levels. Yet, I have found myself facing some kind of weird phenomenon. Yes, there are people who can make me cringe with their laugh, but strangely enough it doesn't seem quite right when I have gone a long time without hearing it. The thing about obnoxious laughter is that it still express this idea of joy and happiness, and even though it may not be a cute laugh, it has the same amount of importance in life. So, after a long absence of the sound, when I hear that laugh again, I find I may roll my eyes a little, but there is also this small smile that I find on my face. Joy is joy, no matter what sound expresses it.

Sometimes I hit rough patches in life. It is not too much of a secret that I will occasionally struggle with feeling depressed. When this happens, at the end of the day, I force myself to step back and look at my day. I find I must ask myself, "Did you laugh today?" and most of the time I will say, "Yes." To which I then have to tell myself. "Then it was worth it." No matter how small it was, there was something in my day that made me laugh, and if I can still find something to make me laugh I have to keep going.  There is a quote by Robert Frost that says, "Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length." I do believe he was onto something here, because while we may find spurts of happiness and laughter few and far between they are good and worth living for.

So, maybe it's something you read that makes you laugh, or maybe it's the sound of another person's laughter that you never even thought to listen for. Either way it is something beautiful and worthy of being treasured. God pretty much ensured that life was going to be hard, but we are also blessed with the gift of laughter. I cannot fully express how beautiful laughter truly is, and maybe I shouldn't try. Perhaps it isn't even something you can look for. But, oh how great is it when you stumble upon it! So be blessed, friends, and never underestimate the power of laughter.