The Chapter of Laughter

Who doesn't remember the full abandon of laughter we had as children. We would laugh until we cried or our stomachs hurt and sometimes we would laugh so hard we could wet our pants.  In our innocence it didn't take much to set us off; an adult falling, false teeth in a glass of water, an aunt whose wig was on crooked. How about singing at the top of our lungs when we went on school bus trips. Such innocuous things filled our day with humor. We had not embraced serious yet. The weight of the world, the financial pressures, the politics of working, were all vacant from our lives and we took our fun where we could find it.
Why do many people say that childhood is the best part of your life? It's because we dealt in such simple pleasures. Finding a shiny rock on the beach, making a sandcastle, stepping in the puddles, eating a package of M&M's, running in the yard and the whole of our world a virtual playground. Fast forward to our adult life. Do we step in the puddles, do we laugh easily and frequently, do we cast our eyes on the world around us, look up at the stars, taste the snow? As adults our life usually morphs into routines, responsibilities, serous conversations. Is it possible to catch the youthful exuberance of our childhood. I say yes.
Here is my own personal check list of how to recapture some of the unbridled passion of youth.

1. Put children in your life and see through their eyes the wonder around them.
2. Dance, even if it by yourself, and feel the rhythm and energy invoked by music.
3. Lay on the grass and look at the clouds. Conjure names to match the shapes.
4. Look up at the night sky and don't just go from the car to the house.
5. Visually enrich your life by going to beautiful parks, waterfalls, river banks and wherever your legs allow. It fills you up.
6. Keep happy people around you and never, never, get into discussions about your aches and pains. (Easier said than done).
7. Find a hobby that matches your passion with no end goal in site. Just do it for the pleasure of doing it. No benchmarks, no perfection quest, do it just for the joy of doing it.
8. Try to see the humor in everyday situations; not finding your keys, or even your car in a parking lot, brushing your teeth with hemorrhoid paste instead of toothpaste because you didn't wear your glasses. The list goes on and on so there are plenty of opportunities for humor.
9. Invite people to your home and cultivate your friendships. Remember your best buddies when you were young. Friends and family keep us going.
10. Whenever you can, perform a random act of kindness. Remember when you gave your mom a special gift and you felt so happy at her joy. A dollar slipped to a kid in the grocery line, an unneeded gift or recycled toy placed in your car ready for the right opportunity. 

Everyone can make their own list, customized to their springs of joy. We don't have to give it up just because were near the end chapter. It can once again be a  Chapter of Laughter.