Sometimes joy oozes out of me and people can’t help but
notice.
It has happened a few times this summer already; I was
riding my bike through the neighborhood
He hasn’t been the only one to stop. The kids in the neighborhood sometimes stand
mouth open at the edge of their lawns, watching me as I bike down the road. I’m sure many of them have never seen a
recumbent trike before, and usually as I whiz past, I hear a shouted confession
from cupped hands, “I like your bike!”
A teenager once named my bike the Lazy-Matron 2000. Admittedly, riding my bike is like pedaling a
lawn chair through the neighborhood.
It’s very comfortable, and if I could somehow figure out how to sip a
glass of lemonade at the same time, I don’t really see any reason to come home!
Joy oozed out of me while singing in my car. I think, at times, the car can become a
sanctuary. The journey from here to
there becomes less about the responsibilities waiting at the destination and
more about the moment. My friend Joel Hanson
generously gave me an early copy of his new CD Let Me Tell You Everything. The whole album is great, but some of the
songs are about praising God and that just gets me jazzed thinking about
heaven!
So, there I was, savoring all these thoughts of standing in
a massive choir wearing high heels, while singing out loud to the words in the song
coming from my car stereo. I was so blissfully lost in pleasure that I didn’t even
notice when my own family pulled up next to me and tried to get my attention. My sister-in-law described the sight later:
There you were, just smiling away!
Joy oozes out of when I teach college courses.
For the past several summers, I’ve had the opportunity to
teach adults at the college level. I
love all aspects of this opportunity. It
is beautiful to walk alongside people who have answered their callings to become teachers. I feel a mixture of humility
and honor, fear and delight every time I walk into a class on the first day and take my place at
the instructor’s station. I’m so
grateful to be standing there. But do you
know what’s my favorite part?
It’s the clothes.
Honestly. I
don’t think the childhood delight of
dress up really stops for girls as they age.
It just becomes more sophisticated.
College teaching doesn’t require me to be on my feet all day, so I get
to wear things that I normally can’t away with like boots and sandals. It was so fun to go shopping the first time
and tell the attendant at Maurices that I was buying clothes to be a college
professor!
I watched all of Season 10 of TLC’s What Not to Wear and
took notes. Stacy and Clinton would be
proud. Did you know that fuschia goes
with mustard because of their positions on the color wheel? Did you know that you can mix prints together
as long as they are in the same color pallet? Do you know the four elements of
a complete outfit: color, pattern, texture, shine?
One day on campus, a Caribou Coffee barista handed me my
drink and she said, “You look good. I
really like your outfit.” I smiled and
said, “Thank you! I am trying!”
And there was last summer, when I opened the garage door,
headed for work, when my next door neighbor saw my outfit, and just about
died.
Ahh! She gasped,
covering her mouth in shock. "Jenny! You look so pretty!"
I don’t wake up happy every morning. Sometimes holding a
positive attitude seems less than authentic. Melancholy feels about
normal. But joy that oozes out of me has
caught my attention. It is a rare and beautiful thing. It has made others
stop and notice and it has made me stop and reflect too.
Ponder with me….
What do you delight in, so much so, that you invest your
time and energy with joy?
Where have you seen
joy ooze out of your being to be noticed by others?
If it’s been awhile, what do you need to return to that
brings you joy?
As always, your writing is beautiful! It made me smile! I too imagine myself singing and dancing one day, with no one telling me to shut up or no one staring at me because I move so weird. I think we will be some opera divas up there in heaven!
ReplyDelete