Joy 2004

Cynics begone; it’s the season of joy all year round

At a baby christening last month, the tears rolled down the cheeks of my niece as she watched her son dressed in the gown his grandfather had worn for his own christening many years before.

Her joy was contagious.

I love true joyful moments; more than when I cry listening to Roger Whittaker albums or watching Somewhere in Time, but the actual life experiences that bring butterflies of pleasure.

Recently, at the Ottawa Public Library Foundation Gala, I met author Denise Chong. author of The Concubine's Children and The Girl in the Picture, who shared with me her joy of writing.

Even though writing fiction is one of the hardest things to do, the Ottawa author says she has never considered not doing it. "I tell my children, if you find something you love, hang on to it."

It’s a similar expression to the one a Citizen graphic designer pasted on the wall of his office: "If you’re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it."

He had two goals for this year’s Ironman Hawaii which he completed: "To finish, and to smile all day." He did both, and what could be more joyful than that. I smiled all day myself just thinking about it.

It is the joy of accomplishment, of reaching your own unique goal. When this summer as a novice swimmer I was able to swim around the island at Meech Lake for the first time, I was beaming like a one-year-old taking her first steps.

Joy is contagious. It spreads like a candle flame - lighting many more candles, but never diminishing the light of each one.

There is personal joy, there is joy in sharing the delight of others, and there is the chain of joy from one to another.
A carefully chosen compliment can create joy. For an interminable stage of my childhood, I was an awkward, skinny, frizzy-haired girl with protruding teeth. Yet a friend of my parents stopping by, greeted me and said, "what beautiful hazel eyes you have!" Eyes? That was a part of me I hadn’t previously considered. That I still remember, shows what an impression her few words were able to make on me. And I have followed her example, seeking out specific ways to praise those for whom praise in a particular area is not obvious.

A father tells me that what he remembers joyfully from his own childhood is a chocolate ice-cream cone his mother bought him for the first time when they were out shopping together. Whenever he had ice-cream for years after, that wonderful feeling came back. It continues to give him understanding of the delight his own three-year-old is feeling from new experiences.

Gobble the joyful moments like ice-cream and spread them around.