Sharing Joy

My eldest daughter and her children came to stay recently. My other adult children live in town, and my youngest is fourteen and still very much a part of my everyday life. On two of the ten nights that my daughter and grandchildren were here, we had large family gathering, once featuring my legendary Indian favorite, Velvet Butter Chicken. Something wonderful happens to me when my entire family is around, and I spend the day preparing a feast to show my love for them. I feel whole and complete, like all of the pieces of me that have been spread around come back together and for a moment I am the personification of JOY. When we are all together we play a lot, we laugh a lot, we thoroughly enjoy each other and the bond we have. There is nothing that quite matches it for me, but sharing joy in little ways everyday can also be pretty great.

The best way to experience joy in your life is to share it. The best way to create joy in your own life is to create it for someone else. What small or large act can you do today to bring joy to someone? Can you smile more at strangers? Compliment something about them? Can you call, write a letter, or send a card to someone special you feel you haven’t given enough attention to lately? Do you have things lying around the house that would be better given to others, either to charity or to friends you know would love them? 

I’m not perfect at this, and am writing this as much as a reminder to me as to anybody. I just know that when I share, when I give, I experience feelings of abundance and gratitude for all I have. When I perform a simple act of kindness for another, it feeds my soul. The word for the month of September is SHARE, and I am deeply engaged in it, figuring out what it is trying to say to me. Hopefully some good insights will follow in the coming weeks.

In love and JOY,