The Joys of Life
Hello Friends!
I hope you are having a good week so far and are allowing yourself some time for joy!
Today, I want to share with you what happened to me last week that has me thinking a lot about joy and how important it is for all of us to spend time each day doing something we love – even if we only have a few spare minutes.
Over ten years ago, I suffered a horrible computer crash and lost most of my data, including my music collection. Although my collection wasn’t extensive by any means, it contained my favorite songs, and I loved them because they were unique. They weren’t popular, mass-market songs that I could find anywhere. Instead, they were songs I had searched for, and each one was tough to lose. This was all quite sad for me, really.
Thankfully, through the years, I was able to either repurchase or stream almost all of the music I lost. Almost all - but not all. I still could not find several songs from my collection that were independently produced by different no-name bands and artists on MySpace (remember that?) and other websites that never had too wide a reach. Honestly, I’m not even sure how I found them in the first place!
Even though I’m always up for trying and checking out new things, I LOVE going back to my old favorites. For me, there is something so comforting about watching the same TV show or listening to the same song over and over. Yeah, I know what the plot is or how the song goes, but I want to hear it again anyway. It’s like talking to an old friend.
These songs were my old friends. I remember having them on repeat and listening to them whenever I had a chance.
I was utterly devastated when I lost them and even more so when I searched and searched and couldn’t find them again. At least once a year since my computer crashed, I would try again, hoping to catch a break and find my long-lost songs. But no matter how hard I looked, no matter what I googled, I had no success, which left me a bit more disappointed with each passing year.
So now you know the back story. Wait until you hear what happened LAST WEEK!
I started thinking about my songs again and how much I wished I could listen to them. It didn’t take long to go from thinking about them to trying one more time to find them. I did the same thing I have done for the last ten years: I went to Google, YouTube, and all the other music sites I know of, typed in the name of the song, said a little prayer, and clicked search. Then, once again, I started pouring through thousands of results. Usually, I ended up with nothing, so I’d give up. That was my routine.
I bet you can feel it already – THIS YEAR, I FOUND ALL OF MY SONGS!
I have been over the moon about this, and I’m listening to my old friends during every spare moment. And the JOY, the pure joy I am feeling, is what I want to share with you.
Joy is essential to having a healthy, happy, fulfilled life. It makes our hearts sing, and OUR HEARTS NEED TO SING!
My decade-long search was so worth it. It wasn’t easy; it took patience (something I can be pretty short on), it took time (a decade of searching adds up to A LOT of time), and what’s more, I’m excited to share my joy with you (something that is important to do with your joy!).
How do YOU find joy? Do you share it? Are you committed to finding it? Do YOU spend a little time each day doing something you love – like listening to your favorite music?
Take it from me; joy doesn’t happen by accident. You find joy when you are determined, intentional, and never give up hope.
Wishing you all the joy of joy,
Ada