Laughter is therapeutic. I thank God every day for the particular strain of humor that runs through my paternal blood line. The wit and wisdom of humor used to express love and to create connection. I see it in my father, brother, children and now percolating in our three-year-old grandson. Waiting for it to surface, a certain twinkle in his eye reflects the innocent mischief lying at the core of our family’s brand of humor. I’m pretty sure he’s got it! Foundational and functional like the water that fish don’t even recognize to be their life’s environment, until they are removed from it, this wit sustains me. I could not imagine a life without it. Expression is not always calculated. Rather there is a welling up inside yearning for release. Certain occasions do suggest that discretion be the better part of valor. Seeds germinating into a sprout, from whence I cannot know. “It’s genetic,” I say, should cover be needed. The humorless life leaves me cold, so I accept the risk when delivering witticisms, always offered with the intention of inclusion and encouraging of playfulness. The inner rewards of laughter, happy hormonal chemical release, easing of tension amidst a delicate situation and the momentary relief of setting aside our woes, are valuable. Still, assuming that others possess, or even appreciate, humor in ways we ourselves might, can be awkward. It is in making the human connection however, that the moment survives the risk. Humor, for no apparent reason, is too often absent from certain people’s everyday lives. Happily, it is never too late to allow the joys of laughter to lift our hearts and lighten our loads. Laughter is an option. Enjoy this edition of Start Healthy,