LAUGH SO HARD

Dear Spike:

For as long as you’ve been with us, we’ve always known when you are unhappy.

You cry when you’re hungry. You cry when you want to be held. And — particularly as of late — you cry when your little gums hurt.

But today, for the first time, you discovered a new way to communicate with us: You giggled.

It happened first while we were in the kitchen, then several times while we were at the park. You laughed. You laughed so much it made me laugh too — and then I laughed so hard that I nearly cried.

I love the sound of laughter. I love how it fills a room, rising above the din of normal conversation, demanding and contagious. I love how perfectly it translates into any language, any culture. I love how everyone laughs a little bit different than everyone else, but how we all — every last one of us — laugh.

The past three months not withstanding, you will laugh a whole lot more, in this life, than you will cry. You will smile more than you frown. And you will feel joy far more than you feel sadness.

Share that joy. Share those smiles. And share your laughter. Laugh hard, laugh long, laugh often. Laugh so much it makes others laugh too.

Laugh so hard it makes you cry.

Love,
dad