The Power of Laughter

When I set off on the Hike of a Lifetime on the Camino de Santiago, I never thought one of the lessons I would learn and from the journey would be that laughter is much needed in life, and it is very contagious.

A few hours into the third day of our hike, our group was becoming more and more comfortable with each other.  While walking with one of the men in our group, I heard something I had not heard in a very long time.  I heard one of the loudest, deepest, most hilarious and joyful belly laughs come out from one of the men in the group ahead of us.

I am not sure what was said to him to make him laugh the way we did, but it caught our attention.  We caught up to the rest of the group to see what was so funny, and then began engaging in the conversation.  What we stepped into was the proverbial “roasting” of one of our group members.  This roast was done in love and with a fun and positive approach, and it was still one of the funniest things I had ever heard!

After one member of our group was roasted, it was another’s turn, then another’s, and so on.  Not only did this roasting continue to take place throughout the trip, but it also continued to have us laughing out loud at the top of our lungs.

It was contagious. It was joyful. It was refreshing and much needed for our hearts and souls.