My family’s underlying coping measure is humor. Everything is funny to us, and nothing is off-limits. Heaven help you if you are in our “inner circle” because you are then no longer safe from our brand of comedy.

I think it sometimes makes people feel uncomfortable when they don’t understand that it is often our lifeline. No, our son’s autism is not funny, per se, but if we do not attack some circumstances with humor, then we might crumble in the face of them. And that’s no good for anyone.

We laugh a lot in our home. We laugh at one another, we laugh at ourselves, we laugh at other people.

We are working through the hard stuff with some good fun.

We joke about inappropriate things with our close friends. But these are the friends who also see that we are not covering anything up with our jokes or being cruel at the expense of anyone – we are working through the hard stuff by being able to set it aside and clear out the cobwebs with some good fun.

It’s true – where there is laughter, there is love. And nothing releases much-needed, mood-enhancing endorphins like a good laugh-until-it-hurts.

These are what memories – and deep relationships – are made of.

photo by trolf