laughter

Talking with a friend

A meditation I wrote a while ago…

As I spend time with people who care about me, my happiness grows. I don’t feel so lonely. Life seems worthwhile when I can offer my time and spend it with them.

As I grow closer to my friends, we develop jokes that are hidden within our memories. There may be a pun that we’ve said several times. It becomes a cliché that breaks us out into laughter.

When I spend time with nature, I can find a peace. I, by myself, don’t have the power to raise a fawn or grow a forest. I can assist by avoiding the negative, but I cannot do it on my own. 

With a friend, there is a similar peace. I don’t have the power to create it on my own. We like to give each other the priceless gift of caring each time we visit each other.

Keys to our friendship are feelings of love and feeling loved. By building a relationship carefully, feelings of fear and anger are rare. We may have a disagreement, but we don’t allow that to tear down our bridge.

I keep a friend with peace and happiness.

When I do not understand, I ask a question and we communicate. When I don’t say what I meant, we talk about it. I give an answer to explain what I meant.

When we laugh together, we feel happy. We feel a part of a bigger world. We watch each other’s back. Our lives together are enriched.

An Honest Smile

It’s easy for me to look at myself and find one way or another that I’m off kilter. My latest “trick” happens when I try to jump in with someone who monopolizes conversations. Basically I stutter the first word I want to say. I don’t think it’s a “real” stutter–it never happens anywhere else. Really, I’m just getting to practice jumping in so I can get better.

I have this horrible solitaire head game that I play. “What’s wrong with Bill?” It try to identify a disease label for any of my personality features, feelings or quirks. If there’s more than one label, all the better. Uck! Why do I put myself through that?

I’ve started a new game: “What’s right with Bill?” Kind of an opposite-to-emotion action to weaken that negative game.

One what’s right with Bill is that I have an honest smile. When I see someone, I smile broadly and am not faking it. It’s rarely wrong to smile at someone. I like to see people in the grocery store smile back at me. It’s almost a reflex for people to smile back.

I love to laugh. Having a momentary silent conversation with someone as we smile at each other is wonderful.

Smile! It will make you feel a tiny bit better.