Skip to main content

Soul-Level Joy

Lately I’ve been blessed to notice myself experiencing soul level joy more and more. The best way I can describe it is just feeling happy at every level. Physical, emotional spiritual. It almost takes my breath away when I stop and soak it up. I wanted to capture one such moment here. 

Lately Allie has been doing SUPER kind things (that I can not fathom myself doing at her age). For example, she brought one of her Happy Meal toys to dinner with us the other night at a restaurant and decided on her own that she wanted to give it away to a little girl sitting nearby. The joy on the girl’s face was priceless. Her grandma was stunned. Allie has such an incredibly generous spirit. She loves making others feel loved and special in her own 3 year old way. Sometimes she will also share her beloved French fries with Matt and I. 😱


Today we took Allie to the Denver Aquarium. This girl just loves to explore and “go somewhere” and we live in a great city to indulge her adventurous spirit. The end of every aquarium visit is the highlight for her. They let kids “pet” and feed stingrays swimming in a shallow pool near the exit. Allie literally did this for 30 minutes straight. I think the staff were getting a little concerned at the length of time we spent there. The aquarium also lets visitors purchase shrimp to feed the stingrays. We decided Allie was probably ready to do this based on her love of the stingrays and how gentle she was being with them. However, when I went to buy some “stingray food”, the attendant told me that they had JUST sold the last one. 

So we continued petting the stingrays and gently trying to pry our adoring toddler away from them. Then the magic happened. A lady standing nearby handed us a basket with three shrimp in it. She was not fond of the stingray feeding experience and randomly gifted the rest of her stingray food to Allie. Queue soul level joy to watch my daughter be on the receiving end of the generosity she so frequently gives. And her squeals of delight as the stingrays gobbled the food out of her hand were priceless. The world needs more random acts of generosity. More soul-level joy.



Allie will share most things with all her heart. But don’t ask her to share her ice cream. 🤭

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Political Aside

I’m going to apologize in advance for making this blog political for today. There is just one recent development I can’t help but post about. Last week, Congress passed a bill that made it a lot harder for credit card companies to take advantage of people through late fees and overlimit fees. Sounds great, huh? This bill would have been a lot better if there hadn’t been a certain “add-on” bill piggy backing on to the credit card legislation, making it legal for concealed weapons to be carried in national parks, as long as they are licensed and registered. Now unless you are going into a national park to shoot condors or bald eagles (which is ILLEGAL!), I cannot think of a single reason why you would need to have a concealed weapon in a national park. It’s not like they are huge hot spots for gangs, thugs and violence. National Parks are set up as a refuge for endangered species and a place where wildlife can live uninhibited. Where a hunting license would be required to shoot wildlife ...
5 comments
Read more

The Power of the Mind

I believe in the power of the mind. It seems to me that a simple thought can solve (or create) many problems. Let me explain. Say you haven’t been sick in a really long time, and you don’t even notice. And just then when you get to thinking “Wow, I really haven’t been sick in a long time,” you come down with a cold. It’s like one little thought can trigger a physical reaction. I had a similar experience at work. My computer software used to crash a lot, which was really annoying. Recently, it has been running well until I had the thought “Wow, this software hasn’t crashed in a long time.” Five minutes later, it crashes. So many of these occurrences have been happening to me lately that it hardly seems like it can be coincidence. Now, if only I could use the power of my mind to figure out my latest programming issues for school…it suddenly doesn’t seem so easy as to “think it in.” Last Saturday morning and Monday mornings, I had to get up at 4 am to let Pongo out. He usually has a bladd...
1 comment
Read more

Interlude: Tuesday Thoughts

One of my favorite TV shows to watch is “Jon and Kate Plus 8”. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a show which chronicles the life of a couple (Jon and Kate) with twins and sextuplets. Last night, Jon and Kate made a big (but expected) announcement. They are getting divorced. Due to all of the rumors in the media, this was not a shock. But I find it ironic that Jon and Kate started doing the show because it was “what was best for the kids.” Granted, it made them a LOT of money and skyrocketed them to fame. But ultimately, and I can only speculate, (they don’t ever really officially say what specifically lead to the divorce) that the fame and money are what dissolved their marriage. Clearly, the show was not really what was best for the kids in the end. I think I am mostly upset about this because I just read Kate’s book “Multiple Blessings,” which was written a couple years ago when she and Jon were still completely in love. I miss that. I really love their story. It was hard to rea...
3 comments
Read more