Got Joy?

“Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” Emily Dickinson
Over the past several months I’ve learned something about joy. It’s a mixed emotion. Like recently when my son was called to serve a mission for our church. Though he’s planned to go since he was a young boy, and is beyond excited and happily prepared, I found myself with that bittersweet joyful feeling: elated at this new life step and incredible experience, and, a knowing sadness that this will ultimately shift things in a way that can never go back.
It’s an odd sensation—the hope for your children’s progression, and the melancholy that they leave the prior place.
In like manner, but on a younger scale, just last week my toddler happily fixated on his favorite toy—a large car transporter truck. He pushed it everywhere—literally. At the gas station, in the store, around the driveway, this toy was his true BFF.
Until one day, as he pushed the transporter through a store, he saw The Dump Truck. And as if an angelic minus track began to play in the background, he immediately left his transporter, gazed upon the larger John Deere dump truck, and promptly toted it off the shelf to be happily pushed around the floor.
The old transporter was forgotten.
And yet, ironically, the elation at the new toy did not spoil the memory of, nor the hours of enjoyment, found in the old one.
He still plays with the transporter, but differently. And in similar fashion as he outgrows his favorite Thomas the Tank Engine T-shirt, or playdough color, or applesauce snack, he moves on to the next step, and the next food, and the next moment for his life.
I know that getting reminiscent over toy upgrades doesn’t compare to an eighteen-year-old forging ahead with his life. And yet, in a very real way for a Mom, it does. Because our job is all about change, and upgrades, and progression.
And the realization that one of the best parts of being a mother is to be a part of each and every one. They may forget carefully placing orange and red cars on the transporter, or the callouses on fingers from first lessons in playing a guitar, but I won’t. To have that memory store and to have been in the mix for those experiences all along the way is an unexpected gift in the everyday norm of life.
My joy at this time in life is not necessarily a big event or profound experience. Rather, it’s a life sandwich made of many moments and feelings and experiences shared with those I love, and the opportunity to have shared them together.
Best,
Connie

Suggested Weekly Goal:

Take a moment and brainstorm 3 to 5 of your most joyful life memories and write them down, brief or detailed. Consider what made them joyful and why they still make you feel that way.