By Heather Palacios
Many moons ago, when the boys were toddlers, we found a new local park to crash. While my husband snoozed on a bench, I proceeded to push the boys on the toddler-designed bucket swings.
DJ and Andy were squealing with unintelligible exclamations as they laughed, and DJ proclaimed, “Higher, Mommy, higher!” I obliged, and they continued to shout in delight.
“Whee!”
“Whoa!”
“Wha-hooey!”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”
And then, in the literal blink of an eye, an ordinary moment became an extraordinary memory.
DJ proclaimed, “Mommy, my heart is laughing!”
My heart is laughing.
The mental brakes in my head came to a tire-spinning halt as I considered those words.
My heart has grown cold. My heart has been blindsided. My heart has been pricked. My heart has been weighed down. But when has my heart laughed?
Parents, as we stumble into another back-to-school season, there will be moments—and sometimes longer stretches—when our hearts ache, anger, and break for our children. But this school year, I propose that we intentionally seek out the moments when our hearts can laugh with our kids.
In the car line, at dinner, before bed—if our child is laughing, can we pause the adult button for just a moment and join them in it?
An ancient proverb tells us, “A cheerful heart is good medicine.”
Life is tough. But living life is worth laughing for. If we weren’t meant to laugh, we wouldn’t have that heart-gut-mouth instinct to do so. We would be laughless beings. But laughter is important to creation. Shoot, there’s even another species in our animal kingdom called the laughing hyena!
Thirty years later, I’m so glad DJ unknowingly, unintentionally, and inadvertently held a mirror up to my heart and made me take a good look at it.
We are living—but are we laughing?
I pray that this school year, we would all experience a swing-set kind of laughter—the kind that causes us to forget, if only for a moment, everything weighing on our adult hearts and simply join our children in their joy.
And maybe, just maybe, we’ll find ourselves proclaiming right along with them:
“My heart is laughing!”
Hope With Heather reflects my personal experiences and insights and should not be taken as a substitute for professional guidance in any field.
