I saw a sign at the Sierra Madre Playhouse that read, “Coming Soon! Joy & Laughter.” I couldn’t help thinking how much we all need to laugh again. The expression, “laughter is the best medicine,” is scientifically true as the Mayo Clinic has found. It helps lessen depression and it stimulates organs and the healthy flow of oxygen that in turn strengthen the immune system – a boost we can all use right now.
Laughing comes naturally in our family -- more accurately, in Louie’s family. I would have to say that the longer we were married, the more I learned to laugh more freely. The Mayo Clinic says that humor can be learned. As I came from a set of serious and industrious parents, laughing, much less talking, around the dinner table was pretty non-existent. The need to laugh and chat were just lying dormant inside me until destiny brought Louie and me together.
The epitome of this wonderful dynamic was the countless multi-generational dinners with Louie’s family around a tiny kitchen table. Everyone laughed at the same stories that were told over and over and over, year after year after year – as if they were hearing it for the first time. It took a while for me to really understand it all. If you can’t beat them, join them, I decided.
How can anyone say no to an exercise that relieves stress and soothes tension?
With constant challenges, Life keeps us on our toes. When those times confront me, I remind myself: “You can laugh, or you can cry.”
It’s so much easier to laugh.