Giggles
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. — Mae West
I have a friend who advocates giggling (his word) daily. He’s always trying get people to smile and professes that the giggle is always there if you look for it. I’m inclined to agree. No matter how busy or important or sad our day is, there is always a laugh to be had somewhere.
Laughter costs nothing and lifts our spirits.
Some people like puns or word play. (A dyslexic walks into a bra…) Others, often below the age of ten, prefer the most nonsensical of all silliness the knock-knock joke. Regardless of our brand of humor, when laughter is shared, it bolsters our connections with others.
Scientists have determined that shared jokes have been used by people for centuries as a kind of human secret decoder ring. Jokes often contain a small controversy. Our response to the nose-thumbing involved provides insight into our world views and affinities.
Sometimes our giggles come from teasing our friends with 1,000 inside jokes. The way he knowingly mispronounces a certain words… Or how she is forever posting pictures of her unwitting husband napping with the cat… Or that he prefers buying Diet Coke bottles with the name Vanessa on the label…
Nothing is more attractive than an excellent sense of humor.
The best giggles, though, are the ones we have at our own expense. When our self-importance gets brought down a couple notches and those around us get to see our humanness–like when some shenanigans catch us off guard and a laugh-snort escapes before we can contain it. Classic.
We have only this moment, cultivating our ability to find the giggle in the ordinary happenings of life enables us to bring the gift of lightness to it.
(P.S. No amount of hustling up your game face can cover a snort.)
