Great Circle

Laughter is medicine. Laughter builds rapport and affection between human beings. Laughter is something I love to see happening in workplaces, because work is about more than productivity, and yet productivity is positively influenced by happiness.

Service Untitled had a well-written post recently on the topic of appropriate humor in customer service. Well worth the read…

Laughter is also something I love to see happening in families, especially when the parents are allowing the kids to bring some fun into their serious adult world …

For us parents, this can be as simple as staying “present” with your kids and letting their innate comedic genius really touch your soul. Let them finish their comment, get a joke or wisecrack out, pull an absurdly silly face… without interrupting it all to get on with serious stuff.

My kids make me laugh out loud … as often as I let them. And I know that my laughter nurtures both their souls and mine, and I know that the attention I give them builds confidence and security in them also.

It’s funny (no pun intended - ok, I intended it!) - it’s funny how laughter and happiness can be a choice, something we seek, something we tune into. Us Westerners are kinda silly, adopting a postition of distraction in life where we almost dare Fun to break through and touch us. When it actually comes along, we often feel the need to justify it:

“Oh, yes I have to go to the carnival on the weekend; my kids need some quality time.” (How about “I’m going to the Carnival on the weekend with my kids; whoo hoo!!”?)

Meanwhile our kids are absorbed with Fun. They live for it, search for it and when it happens, they lap it up. And if we’ll only let them, they’ll bring us a gift of laughter, of fun, of wonder - enough to revive us and bring us down to earth again…