The beauty of the day seemed to bring out the best in nearly everyone I had appointments with today. From making fun of woodchucks living under storage buildings, to un-opened cans of soda that had likely been in storage on a basement shelf for many years. Even to the point of picking a peony flower and handing it to a customer and saying, “Be sure to shake before you smell!” Yes, I think most of us know that peony flowers often times have ants in them.
Far too many of us seem to have forgotten the joy of laughter. I don’t mean the type of spiteful laughter that comes at the expense of others, but rather the laughter of quirky and comical things borne of situations of which we find ourselves. I was paging through a book that was written over 140 years ago and found a small half page devoted to laughter. The following is that half page:
Truly there is nothing sweeter or pleasanter to the ear than the merry laugh of a happy person, and nothing dissipates gloom and sadness quicker, and drives dull care away like a good, hearty laugh. We do not laugh enough; nature should teach us this lesson, it is true: the earth needs the showers, but if it did not catch and hold the sunshine too, where would be the brightness and beauty it lavishes upon us? Laugh heartily, laugh often, not boisterously, but let the gladness of your hearts bubble up once in a while, and over-flow in a glad, mirthful laugh.
In reading this, I can agree that we should find something each day to create laughter from within. I think everyone should find their own book of laughter to lift their spirits and soften their hearts.
