Finding Joy
Joy hides in plain sight. She shows up in the form of the impossibly bright fuchsia-colored berries still clinging to the now leafless little bush outside my window. She shows up in the smile of the little girl who delights at seeing my dog, Caly, pad down the street. She sneaks into my routine in the form of a heart shaped cloud, of orangey rusty-red oak leaves falling from a winter-blue sky. She is everywhere, often sitting on the shoulders of grace and kindness, but also out on her own, a free spirit if there ever was one. Joy doesn’t require the presence of absence of any other emotion. She can come in the swirl and chaos of the deepest grief; on a plain day with nothing much to be said about it; on a day of heart-stopping delight and beauty. She doesn’t care where you are, where your mind is, where your heart is, whether it’s a good day for Joy or not. She just shows up and shows up and shows up, knowing that you either will or will not notice her, knowing that it’s all the...
