Tiny Blips of Joy

I was talking to my daughter about a conference she is interested in attending, one where people from different streams of Christianity are getting together to chat, and she ended the conversation by saying, “I’m such a nerd.” (Understand that any reference to talking or a conversation is a description of an instant message chat which happens to be the main way I keep track of my kids these days. And, no, they are not dispersed all over the country, just all over the county.) 

I defended her and told her that her passions were uniquely hers and that in no way made her a nerd. And it got me thinking about what makes us happy. Not the big things—when our team wins, when a child succeeds, when we get a raise—but the smaller things, the quick blips and pokes that pop up from the undercurrent of a normal day. We all have individual touch points that bring some joy into our lives, things that don’t require a group or some leader to drag you forward. The lady that picks up the trash in my office every afternoon likes it when she can just dump the contents of my small receptacle into the big can and not replace my liner. The nurse at the clinic gets excited when she finds a big vein in my left arm when I am there to have blood drawn. A friend offers “high fives” when a song ends in an open chord. Do any of those small details that bring them such joy affect me? No, but at the same time, when I read a perfect paragraph crafted by a favorite author, odds are that won’t do it for them either. 

Thank God we are all different. Thank God there is enough joy to go around. Find some...