Joy - by Wendy

What are those times, those moments or glimpses of joy for me? When do I smile to myself and say ‘this is joy’? When do I feel the bubbling up up of happiness and experience the physical sensation that joy brings?

My children bring me joy. As I have watched them grow into young adults, I get to experience or witness how they have chosen to live their lives. To see them in loving and balanced relationships, to see them as community minded people, to hear their voices - these things bring me joy. To see them face challenges and use learned and natural tools to problem solve, for their kindness and willingness to give without question, those things bring me joy. Their love for each other brings me joy.

My grandsons bring me a simpler joy. Those little expressive faces that laugh and light up so easily. Their confident sense of selves. Their hugs and wrestles, their gentle teasing and jokes, bring me joy and a vision for our families’s futures.

Conversation brings me joy. Quickly getting through the social niceties, holding mugs of coffee on comfy chairs, and beginning the dive in to a topic that is interesting or pressing or relevant in that moment. The banter of throwing ideas into the air, and weighing them, shifting them, adding to them or discarding them. The wonderful conversation agreements of no right answer and of listening fully. Those conversations bring me joy.

Nature brings me joy, particularly water. For as much time as possible, I seek time on a beach or by a river or an ocean. It is there that my soul sings and I cognitively claim joy. Spring is my favorite season, a season of new birth, of hopeful beginnings and renewal. Nature displays my favorite colors in the spring. I feel lighter.

Friends and those relationships bring me great joy. I seek out ‘weirdos’ (a favorite word, that I claim for myself!) and truly enjoy individuals who think uniquely and see the world through lenses different than my own. I love learning, and learn constantly through relationships. My quest for knowledge- the process- brings me joy.

I find joy most easily when I am alone. When I can listen to my heart and mind and body without distraction. I crave alone time, it is where I recharge.

So how do I consciously work on increasing my joy time? Certainly by eliminating things that I don’t care to do, or that I view to have little meaning or impact. Such a privilege in retirement, I know. A mentor of mine challenged me to give up lists - the ‘to dos’ that fill paper and time. Sure, things need to get done, but being more open to allow the day to unfold has significantly increased my joy time.

Starting each day with Jesus firmly centres me before my feet hit the ground and the distractions of the new day hit my senses. I am so thankful for each new day - new opportunity to love and to serve. (I am a cancer survivor- life changed significantly through those series of challenges). I credit Jesus with my ability to be joyful, to see things as perhaps He would want me to see and experience during this life on earth.

I think we need decide if we want to live a joy filled life. And then actively seek it. To make a conscious decision to find it day by day, event by event, interaction by interaction. I think it is what Jesus wants for us, and also how we can shine Jesus here on earth.

Wendy’s ‘few cents’.