Ommmmm....en?

Tonight, during what was being called an Om Blessing, I just so happened to be a part of a funny break in the silence. After the main guy did his "Om Blessings" on all of us (really just going around to us, in a circle, individually, touching each person's head for about 2 minutes and trying to impart some sort of good energy to us), we partnered up to practice giving Om Blessings to each other. My partner was a girl who'd just arrived and whom was also in Housekeeping like me. When it was my "turn" to try to give an om blessing to her, as soon as I placed my hands on her head, amidst this hushed room full of people being ever so serious, she just busted out with what sounded like a painful, squealing cough but ended up being the best, most gutteral laugh--the kind you try so hard to stifle, like in elementary school when you've got the giggles in class and just can't stop. Her whole body was convulsing from trying to hold it back.

Here we were in a very serious, solemn, quiet room, all of us sitting in a huge circle. Quite meditative actually. We'd come to this optional 'class' just to see what it was all about, trying to be openminded. I must admit I wasn't really "buying it", the whole Om Blessing thing - it's basically just a visualization about getting the 'light' from the heavens and letting it run thru you - but I was trying to stay open, and if nothing else, to just be peaceful and meditative in this quiet circle. But then this girl, S., just busts out laughing, the kind that is SO incredibly contagious! And I very soon was keeled over, trying to stifle my own laughter. She ran out of the room, and I followed, out of respect for the other people doing their serious om blessings.

When we composed ourselves and went back in, the girl apologized profusely to the group. The main guy very kindly said that Laughter, just like crying, is a great thing -- It's all a release.

And THAT, I believe. The joy I felt welling up in me, making me want to giggle. It was a physical sensation. I felt it in my skull -- an itchy, twitchy pang in my head from trying to stifle the laughter.

And so, while some might construe it as rude, her spontaneous combustion of laughter in such a seemingly serious moment, plus its contagion to me, was -- as I realized after my initial embarrassment -- really quite NICE. So, it COULD in fact be considered a Blessing, in a way.

As the 'class' ended, and we all left the building and walked into the night, in our small groups, most of us giggled out loud, from the gut, and really enjoyed ourselves. A bunch of the ladies from my dorm decided that I give Giggles as my blessing. That aint so bad, is it?