You Should Be Laughing

Dear, this life of ours is long! It’s so long that at times it can be almost unbearable.

How to live so many days, so many years? The work, the sleep, the hangovers, the breakups, the celebrations. The soft, still moments…

The remedy?

Laughter.

Let me tell you right away: you should be laughing! At yourself, at others, at the moon, the stars, the grass, always and forever more!

Imagine your own tombstone even… what would it say? Something humurous I hope. That would be fantastic.

The great Sufi, Hafiz, perhaps said it best: “O wondrous creatures, by what strange miracle do you so often not smile?”

Perhaps you find your ‘serious’ life somewhat noble. The way you exhaust yourself, earn money for the family, establish an identity you’re proud of, make inspiring stories about your daily efforts to tell others… how great you are, with your supposedly sincere, selfless habits.

Oh how you’ll be applauded, idolised, celebrated for your sacrifice when you’re gone!

Maybe you sincerely enjoy your daily grind; perhaps you already smile more than I, or anyone else, realises. You might indeed laugh at the sky every day.

But if not, let’s take a break from the heroics shall we? Let’s remind ourselves of our freedom, our capacity to thrive, and to rise and fall spontaneously every day of our lives. Let’s remember, more than anything else, that we are ordinary, and that we are selfish.

Feels good to admit it to yourself, doesn’t it? Thought so…

There is something you want actually, right here and now. And the next moment, then the next.

Will you dive into the river, leap into the fire, jump from the cliff? And can you laugh at yourself whilst falling?

What else is there? And what’s stopping you from finding out?

You should be laughing, my dear. You should be laughing.

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