My husband and I recently spent 10 days visiting our daughters and celebrated three family birthdays in September.
It was a great trip. Great weather. Great food. Lots of walks. Lots of golf. Lots of laughs.
One afternoon, we decided to have a very early dinner at an old-fashioned hamburger stand. It was a 50-year-old place that felt like we had stepped into a time machine.
The burgers were cheap and delicious. And my daughter insisted I try the soft serve.
I hadn’t had soft serve ice cream on a cone in years.
It was yummy, and it brought back a flood of memories of being a little kid again.
Then I looked down at my half-eaten cone.
JOY.
Right there on the wrapper.
It made me smile.
Joy is a word that has followed me around for a long time.
It was the word I chose for my “future” at an executive training seminar years ago.
It’s in the title of my book and podcast, The Overthinker’s Guide to Joy.
And Joy was also the name of my first friend in kindergarten.
So yes, I pay attention when the universe puts the word on an ice cream cone.
But it also reminded me of something I’ve written and talked about for years:
Joy is all around us. We just have to notice it.
We tend to think joy has to come in big packages.
A promotion.
A wedding.
A new car.
A new house.
Some major accomplishment we’ve been working toward.
But some of the best moments are much smaller.
A long chat with an old friend.
A great meal.
A laugh that makes your stomach hurt.
Maybe that’s why I loved seeing that word on the wrapper.
JOY.
Because sometimes you get a little reminder from the universe in a $2.00 ice cream cone.
And maybe that’s the thing about joy.
Sometimes it’s not waiting for us only in the big moments.
Sometimes it’s sitting right there in our hands, in the middle of an ordinary day.
Happy Wednesday!
-Jackie
