After the Laughter

This practice arrives in a moment, do not try to make it happen. The next time you laugh truly with people you love, a joke at a family lunch, your child's first attempt at a song, an old friend's story you have heard a hundred times, do not rush back to the next sentence. When the laughter naturally settles, hold still for a few breaths. Notice the soft brightness left in the chest, the body warm, the day a little kinder. That brightness is not made by the joke. It is what the joke briefly uncovered.