Trina, I am SO glad you brought up sadness. I almost touched on it, when I mentioned depression, but sadness is different. In particular, sadness is very important to learn to accept and be comfortable with, as you pointed out, whereas depression is not something people should just "live with." I'm with you, in my "peace and calm" approach to happiness. Laughter is a wonderful part of that, too, but it doesn't have to be all excitement, all the time.

Annie, I agree—laughter through tears is a wonderfully intense, satisfying, and far-too-rare emotion. There's really no way to manufacture it, is there? We just have to do our best to be authentic and open to how we really feel.