Did you laugh today?
I sincerely hope the answer is yes. Laughing is like breathing; if you're not doing it, there's a strong chance you might suffocate. But, the thing about laughing is, it's quite difficult to do on your own. We have lungs so we can breath and friends so we can laugh. That is not all there is to know about the world, but it's a pretty substantial foundation. Funny friends make laughing easy—they're like the oxygen masks you must have to survive the altitude of life's most difficult days. They're the breaths that come to be so essential yet unconscious in our everyday lives. It is important we stop and notice them.
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Recognizing the people who cause your laughter is just like pausing for a moment to consider your breath, noticing as it comes in and out of you. This is how people meditate. It's calming to know that you can always breath; it's equally calming to know that in the chaos of life, you can always laugh. Find these people and hold on to them. Let them continue to remind you that life is perpetually funny, so long as we can still laugh and breathe.
Having funny friends not only calms you, but it also makes you smarter and more humble. If you have funny friends, they will constantly remind you that you are not that big of a deal. They'll laugh at you when you trip down the stairs so that'll you know: yes, everyone saw. No, it doesn't actually matter. They will help you appreciate and not hate the things about you that are not perfect and the mistakes you wish you hadn't made. In this way, you become smarter. You become endowed with an increased capacity to rebound and focus on solving problems, rather than dwelling on their significance. Indeed, the mistakes and misfortunes in your life may be significant, but if you have funny friends, they will help you see that other parts of life are still silly.
Funny friends help you believe in the future. When you're devastated with yourself at 3 a.m. for eating a tub of Ben & Jerry's all by yourself, they remind you that: yes, you'll probably feel very sick tomorrow, but in three days it'll be pretty hilarious to future you.
Keep your funny friends and always seek out new ones. They are the air and the lungs that fuel your happiness.
