Have you ever laughed, really laughed until your sides hurt, your tummy muscles complain, your
\neyes water and your cheek muscles scream? Doesn’t it feel great? For that period of time all your
\ncares and worries vanish…gone!! You feel energized and ready to take on the world.<\/p>\n
From what I can remember, real, honest to goodness, deep in the gut, laugher was foreign to me
\nup until a few years ago. And so was a sense of humour. I really couldn’t see much in this world
\nto laugh at. I could probably count on my fingers the number of times I have really laughed with
\nabandon over the years. My early childhood years were not conducive to laughter. Actually, it
\nwasn’t my nature to laugh. I was a very serious, independent and shy kid (yes, I was!) who grew
\ninto serious, independent and disciplined adult. There was no room in my life for real, honest to
\ngoodness, laughter. That is changing! Believe me!<\/p>\n
Laugher has been described as an innate ability, while humour is a learned behaviour. Doesn’t
\nmatter to me. For years either one was unknown. Comedy shows and newspaper comics were not
\nwatched or read. I quite simply could never see the funny side of any joke, clean or otherwise. I
\noften wondered what people saw in jokes, and I still cannot listen to off colour jokes. Serious…a
\nprude….spoil sport…. I’ve been called them all, and more. Now, I’m learning to laugh. I also
\nseem to be developing a sense of humour. I’m working hard at trying to find something to really
\nlaugh about each day.<\/p>\n
For some, laughter comes so easy. I think about my precious grandchildren. Especially Kara
\nRose and her belly laughs and squeals as she tumbled over the grass with her dog Kane or
\nwrestled with her dad. Or Abby, Tony’s five year old charmer, as she tussles with her mom
\nPatsy, or laughs at the antics of her young brother Adam. They laugh with a wonderous abandon
\nthat tickles my heart and causes me to laugh right along with them. My oldest son, Tony, also
\nhas an infectious, entertaining, from the toes up laughter and his wonderful, warm smile lights
\nup the space around him and warms my heart.<\/p>\n
My sister, Ellen, has the most priceless, infectious laughter of anyone I know. I love it!! Every
\ntime I hear her, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside, like life really is okay. She’s had a lifetime of
\nhardships, and has learned to laugh at the simple and the not so simple experiences that life has
\nthrown at her. She sees humour in most circumstances, and makes laughing at herself when she
\ngoofs up a priority. I so wish! I’d probably be laughing all the time, considering the number of
\ntimes I goof up. Wouldn’t that be something? I’m working on it…laughter … not goofing up!!<\/p>\n
We all know people who seem to be born to laugh – Maybe it’s to brighten up the day for those
\nof us who need to laugh more. How many of you know Bruce Staines? His laughter is absolutely
\nfantastic and so very contagious. He laughs when things are mucked up, and when things are
\ngoing great. You always know when Bruce is around, because this huge, from the toes up,
\ncontagious laughter catches you and wings you away for a few short moments. You can’t help
\nbut smile, or laugh.<\/p>\n
Soooo, Give your face muscles, your inner body parts and your psyche a boost. Find someone to
\nlaugh with, or something to laugh about today. Then watch all your cares and worries of the day
\nvanish for that moment…Isn’t Life Great? Til next time…this is Joan. Remember a laugh a day
\nkeeps the doctor away.<\/p>\n
Joan Brooks makes her home in Wawa, Ontario. Comments are always welcome and can be made through email:
\njoanbrooks@shaw.ca, telephone 856-0652 or by writing to Box 682, Wawa, On P0S 1K0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever laughed, really laughed until your sides hurt, your tummy muscles complain, your eyes water and your cheek muscles scream? Doesn’t it feel great? For that period of time all your cares and worries vanish…gone!! You feel energized and ready to take on the world. From what I can remember, real, honest to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1920],"class_list":["post-18441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-pathways"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 10:42:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18442,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18441\/revisions\/18442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}