A Story of Laughter
Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 9:59 AM "Laughter is carbonated holiness" -- Anne Lamott
"The human brain forgets ninety percent of what goes on."
--Jan Milner
"There were two women who shared a house and raised their daughters, two toddlers, together. Then one of the women got transferred to another city and moved with her daughter.
Ten years later, they had a reunion. The mothers asked their kids what they remembered about living together. Did they remember all the books? No. Did they remember a mom in the kitchen every morning, fixing eggs and toast? No.
What they remembered was playing in the pink bathtub for hours, pulling the pink shower curtain shut for privacy. And the morning the mothers sneaked in, turned off the lights, threw plastic cups and spoons over the curtain and cried, "It's raining spoons!" They laughed and laughed.
We are lucky in this life--our minds think laughter is what's worth remembering.
What laughter from yesterday can I remember today?"
from Today's Gift, author anonymous
No original words from me today, BUT I am most deeply known when I dissolve into fits of soul lifting laughter. It is impossible to fake a belly laugh. Think about it. :-)
photo by bill hughlett
Reader Comments (7)
Reminds me of this wonderful poem by Hafiz:
Laughter
What is laughter? What is laughter?
It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!
It is the sun poking its sweet head out
From behind a cloud
You have been carrying too long,
Veiling your eyes and heart.
It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure
That is your Real body - called Truth.
It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight
To embrace everyone and everything in this world.
Laughter is the polestar
Held in the sky by our Beloved,
Who eternally says,
“Yes, dear ones, come this way,
Come this way towards Me and Love!
Come with your tender mouths moving
And your beautiful tongues conducting songs
And with your movements - your magic movements
Of hands and feet and glands and cells - Dancing!
Know that to God’s Eye,
All movement is a Wondrous Language,
And Music - such exquisite, wild Music!”
O what is laughter, Hafiz?
What is this precious love and laughter
Budding in our hearts?
It is the glorious sound
Of a soul waking up!
-Hafiz
I need to be silly with my children more often. I am far to silly a person. They go into hysterics when I do something silly for them.
BTW yes you may certainly use the L'Engle quote in any way you choose.
christine--
i love this poem. thank you so much for sharing it with me.
and, ME--i can't imagine you being "far too silly" is there even such a thing as too much laughter?
How important we are when it comes to create good memories for our kids :-) Thanks for this story.
britt-arnhild--
thanks for stopping by. i have been amazed with my own children (like the ones in the story) that often what they remember are not the "big" things but simple little things like riding along in the car and singing with the radio.
kind of like God--everywhere; especially in the simple things if we just take time to notice!
Raining spoons. What a wonderful, fantastic surreal image.
Laughter really is the best medicine.
By the way, I've tagged you for a meme that you might find fun. You can see it on my site. I got it from Me, but as far as I can see you haven't yet.
I love the Anne Lamott quote. I forgot to mention when I left a comment in the post above this one that I can really relate to the laughter/snorting phenomenon. :)