I spy joy in the little things

When a friend and co-worker gave me two homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies one morning following a particularly challenging day, I was absolutely elated. If she hadn’t stood up to hug me I would have sat in her lap and given her a squeeze that may well have knocked all the wind out of her. This small but meaningful gesture gave me such joy for hours, long after I devoured those fabulous bits of heaven.

 It actually took me off guard; how much pleasure I found in those cookies and the warm and nurturing thoughts behind them.  Then, a day later, my daughter brought me, unsolicited, a beautiful drawing she’d just completed. “See mama, these are the clouds, and the sky and the sun.  And some flowers, and here’s me.  I drew it for you.”  My heart melted and there it was again – that deep, deep gratitude for a small and meaningful gesture.

That’s when it occurred to me to make a list of the little things that make their way instantly to the center of me and bubble up a smile that then sends ripples of gratitude so tangible I can just almost see them.  These moments of gratitude, of appreciation – that’s joy.  To be aware of and appreciate the moment and what’s happening in it is pure, simple, golden joy.  It lives.  And it spreads, if you let it.

The List…a beginning