I’ve heard it said that in order to get love, you’ve got to give love. I would add to this, that in order to get joy, you’ve got to give joy.
This week’s joy in the time of COVID started with an email. Laurie wrote to me that she had been googling her name – admit it, you’ve done it too, and besides, COVID quarantine gives us all kinds of time to do things that maybe we normally wouldn’t do.
Anyway, after entering her name, up came a blog post which I had written a few years ago. I had written about how she had given me hope during Advent. Which had, of course at the time, given me joy. And reading the post this week gave Laurie joy. And her telling me about it gave me renewed joy. You get the idea. Joy just keeps going around if we spread it.
Here is what Laurie wrote to me: “I can't tell you how much of a glow and smile it put on my face to know that our connection and that day was so positive. Thank you for sharing!”
Gosh, that felt good for her, and it felt good for me.
Which is a really good reminder for us all. If we want to experience moments of joy in the time of COVID, we’ve got to give away some of that joy to others.