Lighter thinking …
1.a watching my grand daughter play for an hour continuously with two balloons. One inflated, one “papa” got to inflate over & over......
1.b Watching the joy my family gets from scenes like above
2. a young lady at church who has an uncrushable spirit, always smiling ! (We call her sunshine )
If I knew why or how, I’d bottle it & be rich3. The memory of the look on my mother in law’s face, when my newly acquired 7 year old step daughter wanted to come home with my wife & I on our wedding night. Gramma trying NOT to explain why she couldn’t. It’s been almost 13 years, and I still smile about that one.
4. All of em ......so far
5.Andreya (grand daughter) pure joy, energy, complete devotion. I can be dog tired at the end of the work day, and just hearing her holler “papa !” and come running - so simple, but so life giving !!!!!
1. Graduating from BCT and AIT
2.My godsister Olivia, who always has a smile on her face. As to why, she is only seven.
3.Whatever E-mails my grandpa sends me.
4.My high school years.
5.Luke and John (two of my pastor’s boys). They tire me out, but boy do I have fun with them.1. Birth of my child. Can’t think of another.
5. I dunno. Porn?
Posted by SteveF
04/29/2005 at 12:50 PM
1. I first ‘knew’ pure joy when I held my son for the second time. (The first time was in the delivery room, and I was out of it.) I held him and felt myself levitate into a realm I didn’t know existed. It was palpable and all-consuming, and I got high on the true meaning of love. After about three days of this absolute ecstacy, I began to have feelings of wanting to get him back inside me where he’d be safe. Then I found my mind obsessing on a loop of wondering how anyone could ever abuse a child. It was a sign: As all pendulums swing, I ended up in a serious post-partum depression that lasted five months.
The second time I experienced pure joy was when I wrote a comprehensive educational discipline on interdisciplinary teaching. It ended up as a book, non-published but copyrighted. My superintendent asked me if I’d be willing to take a year off teaching to go around the state teaching the course/project to other schools. I was asked to write for educational journals about it; I was invited to present it to the only Arab/Palestinian school in the world; I was invited to present it at the annual social studies convention in Chicago - in front of about 5,000 people; I was invited to the Women’s Conference in Bejing to present it; and finally, I was invited to present it to the state convention of education. I presented to a large crowd, and at the end of the two-hour presentation, I received a standing ovation, and the audience crowded around me asking questions for so long, the hosts of the convention had to come and interrupt. I left the convention center and noticed something light inside me. I felt kind of faint, but not as if I would faint. As I walked to my car, I realized my feet were not making contact with the ground. It was pure joy I was feeling - that something I had created had been acknowledged as brilliant by my peers. That does not happen in education. Also, I had so much fun creating the project that I just thought of it as an extension of what I did normally as an educator. I was completely clueless as to the brilliance of the thing. I know that sounds odd, but it’s true. Then I won an award from the The General Assembly of my state.
2. The happiest person I ever met was a sweet little retarded boy who was in my school forever. He knew everyone’s name and when he saw you, he’d beam a huge smile of happiness at seeing us/me/everyone. The coolest - the students loved this kid, too. No making fun of him. Ever. Not even adolescent cynicism or insecurity would blaspheme that kind of joy, and to make it even better, the kids returned his joy and looked out for him.
3. Anything that has made me laugh. Sentimental joy is not likely to make me smile in retrospect.
4. I’d say between 9 and 12. You know enough about the world to relish the funny things, but not enough to become burdened by the cynical things.
5. To my friends who have a true sense of humor. Those who can laugh at anything - including the times of sadness when you’re over crying about them.
Posted by Phoenix
04/29/2005 at 01:10 PM
I can sum up the answers to 1-5 in 5 words:
My five month old son.
I was told that a baby changes everything. They were right.
Egads! Will somebody shut Steel up?
#1. Have to be the first time my wife and I had sex AFTER the wedding… THEN her expression the next morning when I cooked and delivered breakfast in bed… (I’m actually a great cook, if I do say so myself. Wife says I don’t cook often enough)
#2 The happiest person I ever met was my Religion 101 instructor at BYU. Why was he happy? He was always in the service of the Lord. His name was Hugh B. Nibly, and he died late last year.
#3 Interesting question Steel. I smile at dusk, when the stars are just appearing over the trees… then I know it’s time to break out the 6-inch...telescope.
#4 The happiest years are the ones still ahead. Read some Aristotle for more on this.
Pondering this all day at work, thinking about all our eloquent members & the complex answers (wanting to have said/thought something profound), I came the conclusion that in spite of the rat race - great persuit of all things material, the most basic, simplest times were the most meaningful. No # order, just commenting:
Watching my sleeping grand dughter wake up, look at me with a smile so bright & joyful , she could power Las Vegas till Christ’s second coming.
Participating in a good discussion, solving all the worlds problems here on BMEWS, being able to laugh at ourselves and some of the responses.
Listening to the laughter of loved ones, enjoying a good joke
thinking of hildabeast strapped into “old sparky” (sorry)You don’t earn, acquire, obtain, achieve, or buy these - they are truely a gift given from above
Great thought generator Steel, kept my thoughts off work all day !
