It is natural for a person to notice and vividly remember moments of great joy and tremendous happiness.  Such beautiful experiences are for most people thought to be the sum total of the best of their life.  Yet, when I focus for a few minutes and mentally accumulate the big joyful moments experienced the initial list I come up with is shorter than I would have first imagined.  As remembrances of first love, the birth of my son, a miracle that saved my family’s life and other momentous occurrences come to mind, the moments of joy listed get smaller in size.    

In a sort of upside down mental pyramid, the biggest joyful moments of my life are at the top of my list with a great number of smaller joys listed below.  While the width and height of each lesser joy is not nearly as weighty as each entry in the big stuff above, it is in the totaled together small elated moments where I find the majority of my life’s joyousness.

A fresh one from yesterday was sitting in private with a part-time employee and her supervisor discussing how she had risen to the task of filling in, since last September, an open full-time position.  We were telling her that six months before we would not have seriously considered her for the position we were about to promote her to.   She had worked hard and shown what she could do resulting in her getting the position she wanted so badly.  In telling her how proud we were of her, my eyes welled up, her supervisors eyes got watery and so did hers.  It was a small moment of pure joy. 

Last week at the end of a business trip I stopped off in Alabama to see my Brother who I have not seen in over two years (shame on me!).  Once at the airport curbside with my bags I called to let him know.  In less than a minute he pulled up in the lane in front of me.  While just seeing him warmed my heart, it was the hug that lingered that touched me down to the core of my being.  In that moment I was reminded that he is the only true goodness I can trace all the way back to where my memory begins.  That realization was another small moment of joy. 

The warmer than usual winter here has fooled the daffodils of early spring into coming up early.  All over my yard the green little stalks are clustered in flower beds, but only one stalk has had the strength to flower.  The temperature has been down into the teens in the last week, but I noticed that one little yellow flower was still standing tall this morning when I took out the trash.  When color is everywhere, a single flower does not draw much notice, but when one dab of bright daffodil yellow is all there is it becomes very noticeable.  For that split second I noticed the bloom alive and well, I smiled and thought to myself “good for you little fellow”.  Another small moment of joy. 

My work has been extraordinarily busy for the last three weeks and I have spent almost no time with my best friend, Mel.  The couple of visits we have been together I have either been tired, distracted or both.  Outside of my Brother and Son, there is no man closer to me and I have missed his company.  Getting an email inviting me to see a movie tonight caused me to smile momentarily with just the thought of hanging out with my buddy.  Another momentary appearance of a tiny joy.

Sometimes joy is a discovery solely within myself.  Seeing the counter of the days I have written this blog cross 292 earlier this week brought a momentary feeling of joy.  That number represents an 80% accomplishment of my goal of writing here every day for a year, something I honestly would not have believed six months ago possible.  Realizing I had found the kind of discipline I have never been capable of brought a joyous feeling for a short moment.

Always I have considered myself to be a sensitive person with good awareness of my feelings and believed those to be accurate self perceptions.  One unexpected jewel of truth gained from writing about gratitude every day, is my level of gratefulness has increased ten-fold.  My heart, mind and soul have been brought to a level of insightful awareness beyond anything I have known or could have imagined. 

Life is blend of difficulty, challenge and grief combined with joy, happiness and delight.  In what measure I focus my thinking on each is the largest determining factor of the quality of my life. It is with much gratefulness I share publicly that personal truth.

Things don’t go wrong and break your heart
so you can become bitter and give up.
They happen to break you down and build you
up so you can be all that you were intended to be. 
Charles “Tremendous” Jones