Pure Joy ?

by Craig Floyd

I had a question posed the other day that I have thought a lot about.  “What have been your moments of pure joy in your life?” Pure joy, not the fleeting moments of happiness, but real joy that you probably have forgotten about or discounted because they seemed silly.  I have felt happiness when my children were born or later married or I had grandchildren enter my life, but most of those moments were also plagued with worry or stress too.  So as I spent some time pondering pure joy, I discovered that those moments were the simplest times of my life. Moments like watching my grandson pitch a no hit inning and cheering him on without the pressure a parent feels about what was next.  Or going for a ride up a beautiful green canyon and noticing the new spring wildflowers without worrying about day to day stress. Or serving another person without compensation and knowing in my heart that it really helped them.  Those have been some of my “pure joy” moments.  The details are too special to share but they reside in my heart to pull out on the hard depressing days. The world can seem dark and overwhelming.  I’m trying to look for moments of “pure joy” that will get me through those bad days and make my life happier.