LJI 10.1: A string of little victories…

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
—W. W. Purkey

Do you want to know the secret to feeling really alive?

Laugh.

Laugh long. Laugh hard. Most important, laugh as often as you can.

And don’t be stingy; release this laughter in great, overpowering peals—the kind that make people over in the next aisle in the supermarket take notice.

The world is full of material to laugh at; a veritable vein of gold awaiting your mental pick and shovel. They range from your reaction to listening to a “set piece” of stand-up comedy—though these can quickly become a source of dissatisfaction, as who likes to be spoon fed, am I right?—to hearing an acquaintance relate a story of some fabulous feat (or fumbling flub). It's all good.

Personally, I associate the goings-on around me to the many jokes I’ve heard over the years—the former reminding me of the latter, which percolate up and down in my mind like bones in a simmering stew, so I laugh. (“A penguin, a chimpanzee and a llama walk into a bar. ‘What is this?’ says the bartender, ‘Some kind of joke?’).

Sometimes, it is the serendipity of hearing a song one hasn’t heard in a long time played on the radio. There is joy to be found in serendipity.

There are moments when I imagine playing a prank on someone, and the thought is enough to evoke a guffaw—no actual prank needed.

As a translator, I’ve been known to erupt in a good belly laugh after finding the meaning of a particularly slippery term, as I did earlier today while translating an article on—wait for it—rock jetties (the term means "area inside the breakwater").

And then there that very special laugh that, in me, is triggered by the simple act of noticing where I am and reacting to what is around me. This morning, I stepped out of our condo and walked to the corner to take a look at the mountains, which have never failed to bring a smile to my face for absolutely no other reason than that they exist, at which point I find the line between a big smile and an extended fit of laughter to be quite thin.