Joy. I’d like to offer you a simple recipe for it.  Tell you just the right meal to serve, or gift to purchase, or words to say.  But I have never found a consistent recipe for the particular experience that is joy.  I find that joy, like its twin, grace, is an unasked-for gift that simply lands in my heart.

I do know that joy most often fills me at those unexpected moments when I take the time to notice how blessed I am.  

Joy:  It can’t be purchased.  It can’t be scheduled.  It can’t be given to you.

But it is there every day for the noticing.  For me there is joy in perfectly buttered popcorn, in a wide-smiled greeting, in a phone call asking for advice about how to vote, in a perfect breeze, in the bright lights that cut through the darkness this time of year, in beams of sunlight landing on my face.  The opportunity for joy surrounds me every day, but only if I take a moment to notice, to pay attention, to feel the blessing of this very mundane and yet miraculous day.

May you find joy in the everyday miracles that surround you.