If I said, “it’s your choice whether or not to live with joy”, would you want to punch me in the face? Yeah, I get it. But the cold hard fact is, it’s true. Don’t punch the messenger. If you don’t swallow this truth, you’ll only live with joy when the circumstances are right. Dang. It means instead of wallowing in your hurt or sadness, you need to choose joy.
It’s up to you.
Most of my birthdays have not been memorable but I wanted this one to be special. The last decade’s celebration had been a real flop and I was still bitter about it, so I planned the perfect week for myself. On Monday I was going to run the Boston Marathon for the 4th time. Tuesday was a travel day. The plan was to work my last two days at Brennan Construction Wednesday and Thursday before I retired. Friday fly to Toronto where our son and daughter-in-law live. He had a big birthday the same month and we were set to have a great meal together. Saturday was my actual birthday and I had tickets to Hamilton. This was over the top extravagant, but, hey, you only turn 60 once.
Then the Corona virus hit. My plans of having this amazing week disappeared. It wasn’t devastating because I’ve run Boston before and traveled extensively. Hamilton was cancelled everywhere I was sadder for all the actors and musicians than for myself. I could easily let it go. There were much bigger struggles in our world which far outweighed my silly birthday plans.
But I wanted a happy birthday. Was it possible?
I decided it could happen. This would be a good day no matter what. Regardless of what plans had been changed and how out of control the world was, I would make this a good day. As it turned out, our first grandson had been born but had been in quarantine. On my birthday, his parents invited me to visit and hold him if I wore a mask. What a fabulous birthday gift.
On top of holding my grandson for the first time, my 60th birthday gave me another precious gift. I preach and preach about how our emotions are ours to control but I almost allowed another monumental birthday to pass because I wasn’t doing that. The day proved joy was a choice.
Joy is defined as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. Did you get that? It’s a feeling. And, my emotions are mine to control. I get to go into the closet of my emotions and put on a fancy outfit screaming JOY! I have the choice of leaving sadness, doubt, fear, uncertainty, loneliness, disappointment, discouragement, anger, and bitterness in the closet.
Happy birthday to me. It was a success. Despite all the forces pushing to make it uneventful, it was a great day. All of us can choose to have a joyful day.
Choose Joy.