Your Laughter Turns the World To Paradise
the healing journey
It begins with a joke about an old habit and the laughter starts - slightly forced, choked by what’s stuck in my throat. And then memories flood in of moments of fear where the only thing to do was to laugh to release the pressure. The thing in my throat loosens its hold a bit. Soon we are laughing out loud and for a moment I stop, thinking this is wrong, we shouldn’t be laughing at all.
But then I remember her last words - I don’t want people to be sad. Our laughter turns to hysterical giggles and pranks and jokes. More memories come up for moments we were all together and something bizarre happened and how we laughed so hard we cried.
It was always us, the three of us, together, protecting one another, and being each other’s sounding boards. When we got together we were hysterical in our communication, often not needing to speak full sentences or communicating through a single glance. We laughed a lot. And we cried a lot.
And now there are two and here we are laughing about washing clothes in the shower while on vacation and the way certain words sound and how the mirror mocks us some mornings. We honor her with our laughter and that something stuck in my throat breaks free. This is where the healing begins…through laughter.
Funny how things arrive just when you need them. When I awoke this morning I read a poem by Rumi and it broke me wide open with its joy.
Your laughter turns the world to paradise. It tears through me like fire. It teaches me. Reborn in emptiness, I emerge laughing, here to learn from Love new depths of laughter. I've been short on courage, but I have a heart of sunlight, straight from the king's hand. I stir up laughter even in those who fear joy. Crack open my shell. Steal the pearl. I'll still be laughing. It's the rookies who laugh only when they win. Last night, the spirit of dawn came to my room and gave me a lesson in laughter. Our blazing roars lit the morning sky. When I brood like a rain cloud, laughter flashes through me. It's the habit of lightning to laugh through the storm. Look at the furnace. Look at the stones. See the glowing red veins? Gold-laughing in fire, daring you, "prove you're no fake! Laugh even when you lose." We're fodder for death so learn to laugh from the angel of death. He laughs at the jeweled belts and crowns of kings - all that splendor's just on loan. Treetop blossoms erupt in laughter. Petals rain down. Laugh like the bud of a flower, Hugging the ground, It's hidden smile opens to a laugh that lasts a lifetime. Jalaluddin Rumi as translated by Haleh Liza Gafori (from the book Gold)
Journal Prompts - Recall a time you laughed during a time of crisis, struggle, fear, grief? What did it feel like to laugh at a time when you were feeling the intensity of other feelings?