"And all of what little joy in the world seemed suddenly simple and endlessly mine"
- Aaron Weiss
Well, this week is the start of JOY, and frankly, I am breathing a sigh of relief, because spreading “hope” and “peace” were kind of tough to do.
Today I realized that “doing” joy seems to fall into two categories:
1. Simple JOY, like the kind you spread when you smile at someone.
2. Big-deal-JOY, like the kind you give when you save someone’s life or pay their mortgage.
Today’s joys were of the simple variety:
1. First, I joked with the receptionist at the JCC. He called me “Judy”. I got all “appalled” (in a funny way, really) because I know he takes great pride in knowing everyone’s name. I called him “Joe”, and his name is Tim. That really got him laughing and I could see the JOY. He laughed again when he saw me later, so I think the JOY lasted.
2. A friend of mine was working out for the first time at the JCC. It was one of those, “I know her from another part of my life”, like when you were a kid and you saw your teacher in the grocery store. We both were stunned and pleased and kind of “yelped” with JOY.
3. I went to the Goodwill store today, which gives me boundless JOY, much to my children’s dismay. I bought a very cool (OK, cheap) gift for my daughter and a very cool (again, cheap) gift for my son. I cannot say what the gifts are, since they will be sitting under the Christmas tree, but I just know it will give them lots of JOY. It sure brought me lots of JOY. (By the way, they did get a few new gifts too).