Many of you know that “joy” is my thing. For those of you who are newer to the blog I’ll give you a quick recap. Four years ago, there was a commercial with a montage of kids squealing in delight while opening presents. The pure joy and excitement on their faces inspired me to write a blog post about how easy it is for children to find joy and how difficult it can for busy parents. A couple years later, I was in a busy store, impatiently waiting to pay for gifts when I was thought, what happened to the joy in the holidays? This is supposed to be fun! That year I issued the joy challenge to all my readers. Whenever you see the word joy, pause and take a deep breath. Remind yourself of the joy of this season and let all the stress fall away. I also encouraged readers to take pictures of the joy they found and post them on Facebook.
Since that post, I have been literally surrounded by joy, from books to coffee mugs, gift cards to sweaters. I am reminded of joy every day and it serves as a constant reminder for me, which is great because it can slip away so easily. For example, you’re a store and you see joy. You take a picture, post it and float out of the store feeling joyful. You get in your car and as you are backing out, a car swoops behind you nearly taking your bumper with them. You jam on your brakes narrowly avoiding an accident and mutter under your breath. You drive off, your heart still racing, annoyed with what could have happened and just like that the joy bubble is popped, you’re back in frustration and rage, leaving joy in the dust. Of course, it is not possible to stay in joy 24/7. Life happens, but, how can we get back to joy? Here are just a few ways to get back to joy when you are having a particularly challenging day:
It’s hard to believe we only have two weeks until Christmas! (And if that sentence causes you to break out into a cold sweat, then you may want to keep the list above handy, so you can go back and reference it 😊.) My challenge to you is to keep your eyes open and look for joy. Take a picture and post it on your social media, as a reminder to you and your friends and family, the joy of this season. Joy-FULLy Yours, Kacey Don’t miss a post – sign up to receive the blog in your inbox every week. Scroll to the top of the page and you’ll see a box to enter your email in the upper right side of the page.
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January 2021
AuthorI started writing this blog because I wanted to have deeper conversations beyond "How are you?", "Busy", with other parents. Over the years I've shared personal stories, articles, authors and topics to facilitate conversations with parents about the joys and the challenges of parenting. |