I was having lunch with a friend, Jackie, and her seven-year-old daughter, Sarah, at an Indian restaurant.  We were eating great food (that we didn’t have to cook!), drinking chai, catching up on our lives and having a grand time.  It was the beginning of our winter break and having lunch together was our first celebration.

Sanguine Sarah talked almost non-stop, sharing what she liked about school, other children, cooking and a Nickolodean program she enjoys.  She was creative, inventive and an absolute joy to be with.  Whenever I asked her to hold her thought so her mother or I could finish our sentence, she would wait, wiggle a bit and happily contribute when she had a chance.  Our table was a flurry of happy conversation.

Sarah is blessed with a loving family and exudes a deep, strong sense of herself and her love of life.  It is obvious that she is loved and supported for being the light that she is.  I was marveling at her inner strength when she leaned over, made direct eye contact with me and innocently declared, “You are very spiritual.”  Startled, I inquired, “what does spiritual mean?”  Without skipping a beat, she responded, “Calm.”  I took a breath, thanked her and we continued with our lovely time together.

Later that night, my husband and I were sitting on our couch catching up on our day and I told him of my enjoyable lunch, including the comment Sarah had made to me.  We wondered what she was really saying; what was she experiencing from her young, innocent, truthful point of view?  We bantered about the true meaning of the word ’spiritual’ since each and every one of us are spiritual.  We are all spiritual beings having a physical existence.  We all came from somewhere and will go back to somewhere.  We all have a non-physical part of us that is our essential self.  Maybe ’spiritual’ meant that one was consciously aware of being more than the physical body, of being connected to spirit.

As I write this, I am still pondering what Sarah was really saying to me.  Maybe she was telling me that I saw her.  I witnessed, reflected back, and stayed present with her innocence, her purity, her connection to her Divine self.  She was an integral part of our lunch, not just along for the ride with her mom.  I really wanted to hear what she had to share, who she was and what was important to her and I know she felt that.  Her mom is my friend and so is she-I really care about what is important to her.  Or maybe she sees all beings as spiritual and wanted me to know that…

I wonder if Sarah was telling me that she saw me as a part of the Divine.  I couldn’t hide from her.  She was witnessing my essential self-the part of me that listens, that includes, that revels in the joy of being alive.  Sure, like everyone, I experience some of the caca of life.  But there is something about being with a child that brings out the best in me, that helps me be consciously present.  I don’t even need to try to be my best self, it just happens.

I know that I am spiritual, so is Sarah and her mom.  So is every other being on the planet.  Sarah gave me such a gift-I intend to see the spiritual Divine nature of everyone I come into contact with today.  Thank you, Sarah, for the consciousness you have added to my day and hopefully to my life.

“You look fancy today.  Sometimes you look funny!” four year old Irene truthfully gushed.  We both laughed and another child came over and just laughed with us, not even knowing why we were laughing.  I could feel the muscles on my face stretch and the space in my heart expand.

I live a really rich life-I am a preschool teacher.  Young children live in the present moment and for the most part their dominant emotion is happiness.  They are happy to play with a toy, happy to see a friend, happy to eat lunch and just happy to be alive.  Happiness-what a concept!

I read somewhere that children laugh about 300 times a day and adults laugh 15 times a day.  I’m not sure who measured these laughers, but I know many, many grownups that don’t laugh even close to 15 times a day.  Why don’t we laugh more?  Maybe why not is a better question to ask.

The topic of this week’s Mother’s Medicine Circle is laughter so I did some research.  I learned that the health benefits of laughter range from strengthening the immune system to reducing food cravings to increasing one’s threshold for pain.  There are laughter clubs springing up all over the place with the most famous being in India.  With as much poverty as India has, if they are finding some good reasons to laugh, we need to take note.

Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol.  I heard John Gray (the Mars-Venus guy) say that women in America are in trouble because they have high levels of cortisol.  Men reduce their levels of cortisol by working and having orgasms.  Women need romance, friends they can talk to and ways to increase their oxytoxin levels.  Laughing is one way to increase those feel-good, health-enhancing hormones which means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects of stress.

A good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abdominal muscles, provides a good workout for the heart and even works out the stress in those contracted shoulders.

Studies show that our response to the stressful things in our lives can be altered by whether we view something as a threat or an opportunity.  A more light-hearted perspective is possible when we inject a bit of humor into any challenge. Whatever it takes to feel less threatened and more positive has got to be a good thing.  The economy is crashing, ha ha, sooner or later what goes down has to come up!

Today, decide to find humor in your life.  Instead of complaining about a frustration, try laughing about it.  One day you will look back on this situation and laugh; why not laugh today?  If you approach your life in a lighter way, you will be less stressed and healthier.  If you can’t find something to laugh about, fake it til you make it!  The studies show that faked laughter also provides the benefits of non-faked laughter.  Why do you have to lose?

My sister and I used to play a game when we were children.  We would see if we could laugh longer than the other.  It was contagious!  I would laugh cuz she was laughing and she would snort and I would go into peals of laughter-it was a ton of fun!  I remember how pleasantly pooped I felt at the end of our game.  Maybe children are on to something!

I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.  Woody Allen

Laughter is an instant vacation.  Milton Berle

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.  Yiddish Proverb

Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.  Ken Kesey

A laugh is a smile that bursts.  Mary H. Waldrip

Laughter is an orgasm triggered by the intercourse of sense and nonsense.