"When God restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, ‘God has done great things for them’. God has done great things for us, and we rejoiced." Psalm 126

How often do you laugh during any given day? How often do you hear the laughter of others? A recent experience of laughter has been my food over the last few days. While nestled in the forest of the Pacific Northwest in what could be considered a truly idyllic setting, I experienced the intoxicating and healing power of laughter. One of my traveling companions has, what I believe to be, one of the most joyous laughs I have ever heard.

One afternoon I found myself enjoying a cup of coffee, reading a book in the sun, as I got in touch with my feline nature. Each of our group was off doing ‘their own thing’. Suddenly from what I knew was the front porch of where we were staying, I heard her laugh……at first just a loud chuckle and then uncontrollable, body-jarring, roaring laughter. It echoed off the tall pines and the hills around us. I am almost certain it also reached Pugent Sound as it continued, drawing me in. I had no idea what the joke was but I became filled with the joy of the sound. I stopped reading, set down my cup and allowed myself to be bathed in the sheer beauty of that uncontrolled music until I, too, was laughing.

As I sat there, now removed from my tasks, I imagined the cook in the kitchen halting his knife and slowly turning his head, a smile forming on his face, looking toward the sound of her glorious voice. Tucked in the woods, I thought of the author who was working on a book, stopping at his computer and throwing his head back in a moment of insight and transformation. A mile or so away, children playing on the playground at the Waldorf school, may have stopped and turned their heads toward the chuckles floating over the trails toward them. They, too, probably broke out into the kind of uncontrolled body shaking laughter available, it seems, to children.

That’s what happens with laughter…..it becomes contagious. I vote we all commit to doing more of it. In a world that is deadly serious, couldn’t we all use a daily dose of jaw-dropping, stomach-aching, exhaustion-producing laughter? Who knows what healing and hope it might invoke in the Universe?

Here’s to a weekend filled with just that!  Have a great one……………………….

"So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure? God said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too wonderful for God? But Sarah denied saying, " I did not laugh"; for she was afraid. God said, "Oh, yes, you did laugh!" Genesis 18