Laughter

I went to a rehearsal dinner celebration, last night, with a friend.  It's a long story but we were invited by a friend, whose son is getting married, and we weren't invited to the wedding.  There have been a lot of issues with this wedding; apparently the bride, has behaved a bit like Bridezilla, and didn't invite my friend's grandsons, ages 3 and 1, and daughter, of friend was very upset.  She was so upset that she didn't want to go to the wedding.  But she is going with much hesitation and anger.  We sat next to daughter last night, who looked very down in the mouth, and I was not sure I wanted to sit next to her, for fear that her fork might be used as a weapon (against whomever happened to be seated next to her).  But my friend, Wendy, and I sat down.  For a long time the three of us were the only ones at the table (maybe the others knew something we didn't).  But we got to talking and talking and when I tell you that this girl doesn't like to talk I have been with her when it was next to impossible to get one word answers from her. So the fact that she was talking was a real accomplishment.  But then we started talking about all the scuttle but leading up to the wedding and she was giving me the rundown on all the characters: slutty cousin, disgruntled mother-in-law, aunt who wasn't speaking to father, etc... and she was laughing, oh was she laughing, so much so that she was crying.  And I could tell that it was such a relief and release for her (and for me).  Wow laughter is so powerful.  It really should be bottled and used more often to heal.