I like to laugh and smile, and often I am asked why I smile and laugh so much. I often respond that I can remember days when I couldn’t smile, and laughter seemed to have left me forever. The Bible says that a merry heart does good, like a medicine. I found this to be true in my own life and I enjoy bringing light and laughter to others because I believe that merry hearts together can change an atmosphere and an environment. I have missed too many opportunities to shift atmospheres because I was emotionally bound, or to use a colloquialism, “I was in my feelings.”
I know that life is not all smiles and laughter and while some see me smiling a lot, others see me as overly serious. There is a time when laughter serves as a healer but there are also times when tears and crying also serve their purpose in the greater scheme of our lives. I do not want to miss any opportunity to laugh or cry when they bring healing. I do not want to miss any opportunity to help someone else laugh or affirm the need to cry when it will benefit others and the world.
These are times when we must laugh to bring healing and cry to bring awareness. Change comes when life has enough balance for us to see the ‘we’ beyond the ‘me’, and when we can get out of our feelings in order to bring healing. I cannot imagine the climate in Uganda during the massacres that occurred under Idi Amin, or the climate present in Rwanda during the ethnic wars, or the climate in Germany as the Nazis were coming to power, but I believe that somebody did not cry enough and someone did not understand that laughter was for healing and not to put others down, creating an atmosphere that divides the human family.
Our discipline for success cannot be for our success alone, because alone, we can never be successful.