The Cross








Sparking Joy Through Photographs

This weekend was spent pouring over memories. I sat in a room with with about 50 other ladies (and the occasional man) scrapbooking. Technically, it was a scrapbooking “retreat” — but I’d like to think of it as time spent recalling happy (or sometimes sad) memories … with a little paper and tape mixed in. Okay… a lot of tape, and glue, and patterned paper, and embellishments, and ribbon, and die cut machines and lap tops and…oh, nevermind.

Ask any scrapbooker or photographer (or blogger for that matter) why they do what they do, and one of the first responses is this: I want to capture the moment. To savour a unique blip in time that brings an emotion to life. And, we want to share it. How many grandmas pull out those precious pictures of the new grand baby? How many times have you looked through that trip to the mountains album and discovered you have taken 101 shots of the same piece of dirt? Photographs produce memories. Visual cues to a time and place stuck in our brains forever. Moments to be recalled and re-lived. Moments that spark joy. Or moments that bring a flood of tears as you remember challenges… and how you are overcoming them.

I skimmed through a few articles about how our brains and memories work together to store and interact with images — and no surprise here — looking at pictures helps to recall memories. We remember: who, what, where, how and sometimes the why of those pictures. Lots of research is being done to see how scrapbooks and albums are helping Alzheimer patients and people with learning disabilities cognitively connect. I will try and Pin some of the articles on my Pinterest board for you to check out.

Having discovered all these great facts about pictures, I decided for this blog entry to ask a few of my friends to share some of their favourite pics. Images that capture “joy” for them. Some of my friends have studied photography. Others are still learning. For this project, though, I simply asked them to send me photos that “spark joy” for them. I love the results. When you google “joyful images” you get a lot of smiles, a lot of hand raising… and for some reason: bubbles. I suppose “joy” ignites the feeling of freedom for some of us. Therefore, without further ado, here is the collection of a few images that “spark joy” . Please check out the links to follow along if you like what you see –and share the joy around!

As Easter rolls around this week, I am musing about what it would be like if there were photographs of that last trip of Jesus’ ministry. What a contrast of images from the triumphal entry on palm Sunday to the dark hill and the gruesome scene on the top of Golgotha. What would the Instagram accounts of the disciples document in the eventful three days of the first Easter? Does it spark joy in your heart? We’d love to see what images kindle joy for you! Share with us on our Facebook page and tell us why !!

Why there should Never be Leftover Chocolate!

Photo MinA Pexels

Photo: MinA via Pexels

I love chocolate.  Milk.  Dark.  White.  Hot, cold, melted, stirred, mixed, non-GMO, organic or infused with orange essence!  I love it all.  This to the detriment of my hips, and to the disgrace of my healthy optioned hubby.  So with the arrival and passage of Easter this past weekend, the bedeviled stuff has arrived.  Now don’t get me wrong… I believe Easter should be celebrated with its true meaning… the resurrection of Christ and all the holiness and grace of His sacrifice for us.  But at our house, we indulge in the confections too.  According to my limited research, the egg (having been the pagan sign of fertility and new life) became associated with Easter somewhere between the 15th and 19th centuries.

Easter should be celebrated with Christ’s sacrifice for us as its true focus (Photo credit: Jacob Meyer).

Most likely the Germans and/or the French were the first ones to create a hollowed out chocolate egg.  Then they filled it with sweets and distributed it among all the unsuspecting, innocent children. The children!(Personally, I think the Belgians make the best chocolate… but… whatever). Our taste buds have been hooked ever since. Currently, Cadbury World in Birmingham produces 1.5 million creme filled eggs a day.  Oh my heart be still!

So, this got me thinking… why? Why did I once buy a whole Costco-sized carton of Easter-creme eggs and store them for when I am having “one-of-those-days”?  Why do we love the melty stuff and drink in the “food of the gods” as our comfort cuppa?  Turns out chocolate is made up of some 380 chemical compounds that affect our brain chemistry.  The chemical substances in chocolate cause the release of neurotransmitters in the brain that signal us to feel — get this — “happy”.  A lucrative word.

Bear with me as my science mind takes over for a second and we research those chemicals for a bit.  Tryptophan.  It releases serotonin… a commonly known  “anti-depressant” making ya feel, well, no longer depressed.  Phenylethylamine.  An amphetamine releaser creating that excited, pleasurable high.  Theobromine.  Derived from the Greek word, “theobroma” meaning food of the gods.  A stimulant.  Anandamide.  Another “pleasure” producing chemical receptor named after the ancient Sanskrit word for bliss, joy or happiness.  No wonder chocolate bars are sold in drug stores!  Powerful stuff, people.


Turns out chocolate is made up of 380 “happy” chemicals! (Photo credit: Jon Tyson)

Leaving aside the science for a moment, let’s go back to that happy thing.  For most of us… women especially… chocolate is a good, happy thing.  If it were the only thing that kept us going, though, Cadbury would be manufacturing a heck of a lot more than 1.5 million creme eggs a day.   Recently, my world has been bombarded with sadness.  We lost my beloved mother-in-law a few weeks ago.  A friend recently lost her husband in a quick and unrelenting battle with cancer.  I sobbed big, snotty sobs on my last day of work just last Monday.  The world is filled with UNHAPPY.  Even in biblical times, we see examples of folks who have had to deal with their own sadness and feelings of injustice.  Psalm 10 outlines David’s struggle to make sense of his own unhappy.  Why does it seem that everyone around us prospers while we are stuck struggling to keep our heads above water?  David concludes that God is still the master overseer.  A few chapters later, in Psalm 30, David dedicates the temple to God, recognizing that Christ is the true source of happiness.  Sorry, chocolate.


Even 1.5 million chocolate eggs can’t make us truly joyful (Photo credit: Annie Spratt).

I’m not sure where you are on the happiness scale right now.  If you are like me, and are seeing some unhappy things in the world around you, be encouraged, my friend, to indulge a little.  Not only in that all that rich goodness of leftover Easter goodies (yes… that is permission to eat that whole bag of m&m’s), but be sure to share it with a friend.  One who points you in the direction of the true overseer of the “unhappy” and turns your sorrow into dancing.  There should never be leftover chocolate eggs in the house. Enrich the children in your life with yet, another Easter egg hunt.  Who says it should stop with only one long weekend? Encourage one another.  Connect. Turn those neurotransmitters on high with a cuppa melty, rich, heartfelt conversation.  Creamy hot cocoa optional.Blog1 - Page 015