FINDING JOY -- AGAIN

There she stood, at the edge of the pool, just as cute as a button.  Her father was in the pool, but had a secure grip on her hand.  She leaned forward to reach the water shooting up.  She grabbed the water and giggled with delight. 

The boy jumped off the diving board and made one very large splash.  He was all smiles, went back to the diving board, and jumped again.

Why do you go to the pool?  To swim?  To exercise?  To watch the kids?  Or do you see the opportunity to jump and get everyone within a ten mile radius wet?  Do you try to catch water in your hand?

Oh to, once again find lost joy.  Sadly, we cross an invisible line and life becomes different.  We no longer see dogs in the clouds or watch ants carry a load thousands of times heavier than their body weight.  We see dead leaves that need raked instead of leaves that crunch when we walk in them.  We fail to see the wonder of blowing on a dandelion and only visualize those seeds producing more of those pesky weeds. 

Not wanting to get our clothes dirty, we put our watermelon on a plate instead of eating it right out of the rind, with juice dripping down our chin.  And we no longer fight over who gets to lick the ice cream paddle.  Long gone is the need to play in the rain or wiggle our toes in the mud.

Why do we do that?  Why do we no longer find joy in the wonders around us?  Yes, we see the sunrise and the sunset, but we miss so much joy because we think we have to act all grown up.  We need to stop that. 

There is a quote by Kalley Heiligenthal,

Joy is not a season; it is a way of life.

So ….