Quote of the Day: Mary H. Waldrip on Happiness

Late August has a particular kind of pressure: summer’s looseness starts giving way to schedules, deadlines, and the quiet feeling that you should be “back on.” In that tightening, small joys can get edited out first. That’s why this simple line lands like permission: “A laugh is a smile that bursts.”

A smile is often polite, something we can manage while we stay composed. But a laugh is what happens when delight outgrows our self-control. It’s the moment joy refuses to stay small. If you’ve been running life like a spreadsheet lately, consider what that means: you don’t need more discipline to feel better, you may need more room for honest emotion.

Make it practical. Notice the micro-smiles you usually suppress: a funny thought, a warm memory, a colleague’s harmless joke. Instead of filing them away, let them expand. Laughter dissolves tension because it breaks the posture of performance. It also builds humor quickly; shared laughter creates shared reality, a brief but real sense of “we’re in this together.” That’s a form of humanity you can’t fake with clever words.

Mary H. Waldrip earned her perspective in the real world, as a dedicated journalist and community leader who understood how small moments of warmth can stitch a community together.

Today, give yourself a tiny assignment: send one message that’s meant to make someone genuinely laugh, no sarcasm, no agenda, just light. If laughter is a smile that bursts, be the spark that lets someone else’s joy overflow, and carry that sound with you into the day.