Day 23 - Joy is _________.

There is so much joy in my life. I try to remember to look for it everywhere and through everything. I try not to let the world steal it from me. Sometimes it's hard to find it, and sometimes it just pours out with no effort at all.

Joy is laughing with a man who has been making me laugh for almost 13 years. Even when there doesn't appear to be anything laugh-worthy, we can find something.

Taking our picture at the TSO concert.
Partly because we wanted one,
partly because we were laughing at all the people around us who were doing it first.

Joy is wrapping yourself burrito-style in a favorite blanket. Luke's blanket, randomly named Gigi, can cure a lot of ills and induces coma-like sleep when the situation is right. When he needs it, he doesn't care if it's 102 degrees outside, he's going to pile it on top and keep it there while sweat beads break out over the bridge of his nose.

Luke with Gigi blanket.

Joy is spending time with a friend when you are lonely. I know this to the bottom of my soul because a couple of good friends have repeatedly dragged me out of a lonely place over the last year during lunches or phone conversations where all I had to do was listen as they talked about life and kids and family with no expectation that I should do the same, but certainly with acceptance if I did. It's good to have friends with whom you can be quiet, but still walk away with your soul refreshed.

Sometimes Georgia allows Gypsy to sit close beside her when she needs a friend.

Joy is creating. Art, music, songs, words, software, appellate briefs, food, it doesn't matter what, but the act of bringing something into being is fullfilling. Ella and Luke already know it, and we have hundreds of variations of paintings and glued scraps of paper that are all Something to prove it.

Ella and Luke painting together.

Joy is a special treat to celebrate a special occasion, or, just because. This particular milkshake was a Last Day of Vacation treat.

Last Day of Vacation So Let's Do One More Random Thing Milkshake

Joy is playing. And, in this specific instance of play, joy is re-enacting a high school football game. Ella is the drum major, Luke is the football player, and Dave was playing the drums. I may have been singing Luke's version of the fight song, too. That's what usually happens when this breaks out.

Highschool Football Game in Luke's Bedroom

Joy is knowing that I am the child of a loving God who not only hears my prayers, random or angry or selfish or broken or happy or trivial as they may be, but who answers them.

Little children might understand this joy better than all of us.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." - James 1:2-3