The November thread was so enjoyable and seemed to really bring some good prospective to daily “hard” life.
For December - not necessarily about the holidays - share something that brings you joy in life in general or a moment/event/person/item that brought you random joy in that day.
I’ll start.
Something that brings me JOY: every morning when I open the doggy treat jar and my pup scurries from his bed upstairs, and runs down the stairs, tail wagging for his treat and our morning walk. When I hear those paws hit the floor it makes me so happy!!
I often sit at the kitchen table to drink my coffee. My cat likes to sit with me. She kind of demands to sit there, curls up in a ball, and pushes her head into my stomach. It brings me joy first thing in the morning.
(We won’t talk about all of her bad habits).
When I sit in the recliner and one of my cats immediately hops up and curls into a little ball, it’s awesome. That’s his preferred spot, and he wants me to have a blanket on my lap. When I get in the recliner, he’s either right there or I tap my lap and he comes running… But, if the blanket is not on my lap and to the side, he’ll wait looking back and forth at it and my lap until I move it. Once it’s in place, he jumps up. My warm little ball of fur…
And this is a random one that happened yesterday and I almost posted on the gratitude thread… There’s a custodian at work (who’s been here longer than me!) who sometimes will open one of the doors for me. But, it’s not like we’re walking through together and it’s a random hold. She’ll see me coming and just stand and open the door and wait for me like I’m a queen. I try to say a better thanks than usual and ask about her day, but it just put a smile on my face yesterday. I needed it too.
When my little granddaughter sees me getting out of my car, she gets the biggest smile on her face and jumps up & down. I don’t have words to describe the happiness she brings me.
When I finally sit down on the big couch in our family room at the end of the day and my two dogs come running from wherever they are in the house to pile on with me under a throw blanket.
Similar to others, when our two Aussies come bounding in, so happy to see us. Watching them retrieve toys and play tug of war with each other airways makes me smile, too.
Watching the blue Jays in my backyard. Catching up with my kids about nothing specific but their experiences and adult lives. Long healthy walks with my wife and dog. That moment at the end of the day when “work” is done and I can reflect on my blessings.
Seeing the world through my dogs eyes. She lives in the moment!
Randomly, the ringtone of a video call from one of my daughters 3 and 8 hours away.
Seasonally, learning about the charities my kids and their spouses select for me to make donations to in their honor each Christmas.
Getting up every morning and getting my 2 1/2 year old grandson ready for day care. His mom has to be at work at 6:15 and since he lives with us I take him on my way to work later. He does the funniest things in the mornings (most mornings - occasional got up on the wrong side of the bed days). Today it was seeing him find his elf for the first time this year. We don’t do things with it just put it in different places he can easily see it.
At this time of year my Christmas trees bring joy each day. The majority of ornaments are a memory of who gave me the ornament/made the ornament, ornaments from trips, etc.
In retirement, I find great joy in the ability to skip the alarm clock most days and sleep in.
The last years of work were on a grueling IT support job, including plenty of night hours (some as planned Sat night maintenance, some unplanned via irksome pager alert). So it’s been really a nice change.
