“A life full of laughter is a life well spent.” -Sophie Scott

When we celebrated my husband’s Big Birthday last weekend, the moments I enjoyed most were hearing the laugher of our four children and four grandchildren as everyone shared stories on our porch.

The joy of laughter is one of the greatest of blessings in my life, and I’m so thankful that my family has so much to laugh about.

Laughter sounded through the grounds at Chautauqua this week. The theme was Comedy and the Human Condition, and we had terrific standup comics — including Lewis Black and Capitol Steps — along with (I’m not joking) funny theologians, ministers and rabbis. I don’t remember laughing so much in a long time.

Rev. Susan Sparks told us that her father liked to say life requires two tools, WD-40 and duct tape, since “life’s problems come either from something that doesn’t move and it should or something that moves and it shouldn’t… Humor, like WD-40, breaks us open (and) helps us to see things in a fresh, new way. And like duct tape, bonds us together as a community and helps us to see the commonalities instead of the differences.”

I like that, don’t you?

Audrey Hepburn said, “I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.”

In my life laughter is incredibly therapeutic and healing. It may not wash away all of my pain, but humor is a salve that always moves me towards health and happiness.

(And like sex, it’s a lot more fun to do with someone else.)

I wish you many laughs in your life as well as a slew of guffaws.