PURE JOY

PURE JOY  (grandson, Ben on his 4th B.D.)

 When I was a freshman in High School, my good friend and classmate, lived just across the ravine from me. I was often at her house in the evening, in her bedroom, doing homework (darn little), playing records, crank-calling boys and laughing hysterically! My friend's older sister was a senior that year; serious, lacking in humor and, so it seemed to us,  no fun at all. Her name was, uncharacteristically, JOY. And like the commercial at the time, my friend and I would say, "Joy in a Bottle," and then add, "don't you wish she was." And then again, we would laugh. How wonderfully naive and silly we were then! But this memory brings me to my thoughts today on the subject of Joy which I added to my Christmas wishes,  wishing family and friends "a joyous new year." And as I think of it now, how I wish I could capture that joy in a bottle; save it, and bring it out when I needed it, like on a cold, dreary, winter day. But as we know, not so easy to do, for joy is elusive, undefined, fleeting and often mysterious; here one minute and gone the next. So what are the events, moments, situations etc. that fill us (me) with joy? For me, it can be a first snow storm like the one I am seeing out my window this morning, or it can be a beautifully played symphony. It can be a great class like the one I took this past summer on Music, taught by a great professor. It can be a book I am reading like "Traveling Merceries" by Anne LaMott and so many others, or reading a poem like "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth, or even some of my own which speak to my soul.  Nature in all its variety brings me joy; a yellow finch at my bird-feeder; a red bird at my window; a robin with her off-spring in a close-by nest. Browsing in a bookstore  brings joy to me as well as a good movie like "Mama Mia." Completing something challenging, like skiing the mountains of Colorado years ago was always cause for joy as well as a beautiful painting or sculpture in a museum. One single flower in a vase or the first tulip of the spring season brings me joy! Laughter always brings me joy. And yes, walking the woods on our farm yesterday with a good friend,  in fifty degree January weather, was a great joy! And, as I write this, I am thinking that I need to pay more attention to these times of joy, for, as I begin to relate them here, I realize there are more in my life than I ever knew. So maybe I can begin to store them away, not in a bottle, but in my memory so that I CAN bring them out when I need them, and by their memory bring joy to my life on any day.