6. Laugh

Truly - laughter is such an important element of life

Are you on the tiktoks!? Well, I am and I am absolutely obsessed with this latest trend of videos - couples painting each other’s portraits. Literally last night I was watching different ones and just crying with laughter. Ok… let me back up and explain for those of you not in the know…

Couples are having these date nights where they sit across from each other and they paint their significant other’s portrait. The videos are of them revealing their paintings to each other. They show each other the paintings and laughing ensues, for both the couple in the video and for the viewer!

I was watching these last night, and couldn’t stop laughing. So, I made my husband watch them and we laughed! I sent them to my friends, and not only did they laugh, they sent other videos back to me! We all were having this collective laugh - not at the people, just as a response to the sweetness and the funniness of the paintings. I also loved that these couples were bonding not only over this creative experience, but they were laughing together and having fun! So sweet! (the art major in me was also feeling like “see…. this is why we can’t cut art from the school budgets”, but that’s another post for another day)

So much of our lives are so serious. And listen, I’ll admit, I am one that takes life seriously. But also, we have GOT to laugh! We have to be able to laugh at ourselves! We have to be able to laugh together over silly things! Recently, a friend and I were laughing so hard we were crying. Do I remember what about… nope. Do I remember how good it felt to have a release through that full-on belly laugh… yes!

You may not know that I am totally into comedians. I love the art of it. I love finding new comedians and seeing their perspectives. These folks are really able to point out the hilarity of life. They can take mundane moments and moments of seriousness and tease out what’s funny within that.

And, if you think about it… how cool that we were created to laugh! In all of the beautiful ways God created us, laughter is a part of that. Laughter allows us to connect. Laughter allows us to release feelings, emotions, etc… Laughter gives us permission to let go a little bit and not hold so tightly to things. So, while the lesson “Laugh” might seam simple or surface level, I truly believe in the deep importance of laughter.

And to close this lesson, instead of music, I give you laughter…

Click here for - Nate Bargatze on Aging