When we are together we talk about lots of things. Some serious topics and some not so serious. Sometimes we share our hurts and heartbreaks other times we share our joys and the silliness of our lives. And always there is laughter.

I guess I have taken laughter for granted. It is a part of who I am. Life is often hard and difficult, sad and sorrowful. It can be lonely and frightening, filled with hurt and longing. But it is also filled with gifts; breathtaking beauty and love and joy and dreams and yes, laughter. Or so I thought.

But yesterday as my friend and I were having our lunch and we had talked about some of our woes and about some of the worlds woes. And how we think others should solve some of their problems. And how we really do not always know what we are doing but are doing the best we know. Then came the laughter. There is always laughter. It was not surprising or remarkable to me.

However, it was surprising and remarkable to others. The couple in the booth behind me commented on our laughing. They wanted to know what brought it about. They were, in the man’s words, “wallowing in the disturbing and sad news of our state”. They said it was good to hear people laugh.

Then an older woman stopped at our table and said she was not having a very good day–until she heard us laughing! She said it is so rare to hear real laughter anymore and thanked us for brightening her day.

Since then I have been wondering where IS the laughter? It is not a common sound these days. Are we so wrapped up in our selfish little lives and what we want and all that we have a “right” to that we cannot appreciate life for the gift it is?

A favorite verse of mine:

A cheerful heart is good medicine, a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Just wondering…