Joy

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Joy.

Some might argue that joy isn’t really an emotion, but a choice, a way of perceiving one’s life, the world and all that happens to you in your life in this broken world.

Joy, distinguished form its lesser cousin, happiness, which rides the waves of our whims and ever-changing circumstances. Here one moment, fleeting away the next.

Joy can be a state of being if you let it. It’s a sense of peace, of well-being, a feeling that there is a glimmer of home in every situation life may through at you.

Joy is gently, unlike the intense physicality one might experience from the high highs and low lows of ecstasy, sorry, or anxiety. These feel you wrung out and empty when they have passed away.

Joy is reveling in the unconditional love and support felt from a loved one in their tender touch or warm embrace.

Joy is looking out along the horizon where sky and water collide, soaking up a sunrise that feels as if it were painted there in the sky just for your pleasure.

Joy is the giddiness and peace you feel deep inside when you hear the high-pitched laughter of a child, like chimes dancing a warm summer breeze.

Joy is scooping your spoon into a mouth explosion of freshly baked, still warm from the oven fudge brownies topped with a giant scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, and savoring every bite.

Joy is even appreciating those not so good feelings because you understand that it’s in riding through those lows that you can truly feel gratitude for the highs.

Joy is taking every moment of your journey as it comes and believing in your heart that it all means something, that your pain and your efforts are not in vain.