FINDING HAPPY

I have this quote hanging on my bedroom wall that says, "We don't laugh because WE'RE HAPPY.  We're happy because WE LAUGH." -William James.  That's powerful, at least for me it is.  I laid in bed early this morning and read those words on my wall reminding myself of the words and their truth.  Laughing is a huge part of me.  It is one of the lenses I view most things through.  It is also the filter that I use to break down the seriousness of life and a way to find pleasure and delight.  Laughter also allows me to pull back and, from a higher view, see things a bit clearer.  It's like soul salve to heaviness.  Laughter is like real whipping cream on pumpkin pie - it's what makes good, rich experiences even better and brings a measure of tolerance and spice to bitter hard places.  Laughter helps me savor and capture what is felt in my heart many times.  What does happy even mean really?  It's a sense of well-being, contentment, pleasure, joy all rolled into one.  Nowhere do I connect it necessarily to circumstances, although it most definitely is at times very directly tied to experiences and circumstances and moments.  I like that happy is both a noun and a verb.  I most like it in the noun form in my life though -  That definable, staying thing.  Nowhere do I connect happy as dependent on what someone else provides, brings to the table, and gives me in return.  Happy I suppose, as joy as a subtitle, is a choice to find and look for  - sometimes hidden in hard, in doubt, in fear, in struggle, in the simple, in the complex, in plenty and in need.  Laughter is one of Happy's vehicles, a tool, a catalyst in my life that restores and rebalances Happy's rightful place of honor.