Luke 6:22b “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” (NAS)
Laughter. Spontaneous, erupting belly laughs are good for the soul. My friend and I met to celebrate her decade birthday with a hike at Red Rocks in Colorado Springs. The anniversary of her husband’s death two years ago, losing her job, facing that her older dog was very ill, and she was having a “decade” birthday. Yikes! Not much joy or laughter had been present in the last week.
I decided to bring dogs to the party hike for a surprise. Not one, but three. When she saw all the dogs I had borrowed in my car, she started laughing. It was a good beginning. We had four dogs, including her baby, with us shaking with excitement in the early morning. When we reached an open field right past the sign that says, “All dogs must be on leash,” we “unleashed the hounds.” Laughter filled the valley as we watched the pack melt together, merge on separate projects, run, fall, sniff, come back, and ignore us. They were dogs being dogs.
After an hour of frivolity, we met another hiker who was a soldier. He added his dog to the five pack and down the valley we went. It was hysterical and out of control. You cannot carry enough water for five, now six dogs running full out for over an hour. We gave them all we had, shared tea with each other and headed for the cars. Two hours later, the dogs were exhausted, tongues hanging, panting, and lying down wherever there was shade or slowness in our walk.
Laughter transformed the day just as beauty overwhelmed it with a blue skies, red rocks, and green trees.
What fun thing have you planned for yourself or your friends? Have you used humor to help people who are sad?