life is better when you laugh.
I like laughing. All kinds from a small giggle, to a loud chuckle, right through to an enormous heart warming, shoulder shaking, uncontrollable laugh when you find it hard to catch your breath and your face aches. It makes me feel good and brightens my day.
Lots of things make me laugh. When something funny takes me by surprise, Remembering fun I've had with my friends. Rewatching sitcoms I have seen many times and laughing with anticipation for what I know is coming next. Seeing comedians live on stage or on tv. Giggling over a private joke with a friend. Walking into the wind on a blustery day. Watching the waggiest dog in the world do his little hopeful dance whilst waiting to go for a walk or get a treat. Just a few small insights and by no means an exhaustive list.
I like hearing others genuinely laugh out loud, it makes me smile. Sometimes their laugh makes me laugh. I don't need to know what is funny, I feel privileged that I have been able to share a little of their joy.
A few weeks ago there was a minor yoghurt explosion in my class at school. A boy had a yoghurt tube that was proving to be difficult to open. With great effort he managed to prize the top off and in the process squirted the yoghurt, with great force, out of the tube and all over his face and clothes. I have taught many children who would have been deeply upset or embarrassed by this. He was not. He laughed. He laughed very loudly. His friends laughed. I laughed. He didn't mind at all. He just found it all incredibly funny and rightly so. He still giggles when we mention the exploding yoghurt incident and his reaction to it still makes me smile.
I saw a programme a year or so ago that said on average children laugh up to 300 times a day. By the time we are adults with busy lives, jobs and other responsibilities we laugh on average a measly 15 times a day. I think it is high time we rejoined the children and see the funny side of life.
Laugh. It is joyful and it is allowed!
(This post is linked to Amy Palko's Beautiful Beliefs Project)
Yes, indeed! More laughing would make the world a much happier place.
ReplyDeleteI was giggling right along with you as you described the yogurt incident!
ReplyDeleteOnce, when I was teaching how to reference, I got the biggest attack of the giggles. I was using a book called Modernism by Peter Childs as an example, and I was explaining that you put the last name first followed by the first name initial. So, one of my students has worked this out in his head and, in all innocence, says, 'So, that would be Childs P?'
The whole class totally cracked up and I couldn't get myself under control for the rest of the tutorial. Every time I looked at him, I started laughing again. Probably not terribly professional, but I've certainly never forgotten it!