My friend Susan worries she laughs too loud.  She doesn’t.  Her laugh is like a great big hug, a hug that says “It’s alright, laugh with me, life is funny.  After many years of living, loving, and learning, her laugh is rich and confident.  When the joke is on her, she laughs first because she knows that she is “crazy”,  life is “absurd” and it’s really all very funny.

Yesterday on our beautiful drive to Red Feather Lakes, we talked about her 45 year marriage. She is sure that her husband is surprised every day by her changing moods. She can leave for a meeting feeling and behaving fine; but return from that meeting scowling and asking “Don”t you have some place else to go?” She expects her husband to just know what to worry about and what to do, then she remembers that he can’t read her mind. That’s good. We both have a good laugh at how unrealistic our expectations are, and even in a marriage 45 years long, we forget that we can still surprise each other.

Then we remember our late night discussions , fueled by beer and cigarettes, about the meaning of life. A silly topic really as we agree that there is no ultimate goal,  and it is the living of each moment as it comes that creates a Life. We laugh because we were so sure that we would find the meaning of life, and now in our sixties we laugh at the silly question.

If you don’t at least chuckle at this quote, something is wrong with you.

When people are laughing, they are generally not killing each other. Alan Alda

And to Susan, thanks for all the healing laughter.

LAUGHTER IS THE FIREWORKS OF THE SOUL. Josh Billings