Life is millions of choices that slowly shape who we become.
Some choices change us deeply and intensely,
Asking us to transform and letting us choose who we become on the other side.
And then there are the seemingly smaller choices,
The ones that feel insignificant in the moment.
These are the ones that give our life structure and meaning.
For me,
One of the questions I often ask myself is,
What would bring me more joy today?
Joy,
In my eyes,
Is a deeper kind of happiness.
It's childlike,
Innocent,
And less dependent on our circumstances.
We live in a world that places so much emphasis on happiness,
As though it's something our lives need to achieve before we can truly feel it.
But I don't think that happiness needs to be the destination.
Joy can exist right here,
Within the life we already are living.
When I take the time to search for joy each day,
I feel I am an architect of my own life.
Not because I can control what happens,
But because I can choose what to notice,
What to make space for,
And what I allow myself to feel.
Joy sits in many places.
Some are obvious.
The giggle of a baby.
And then there are the quieter forms of joy.
The ones that invite us in,
Seeing if we'll be present long enough to notice and enjoy them.
The passing of a very chunky bumblebee rubbing up against a flower.
The song the trees make in the wind.
Joy lives in presence.
Joy is something that asks us to slow down and savor the sweet feeling that it brings.
Happiness is not my goal,
But many moments of pure,
Unbridled joy are within reach if we allow ourselves to open to them.
Joy doesn't erase the hard things.
It doesn't ask us to be happy,
And life is hard.
But it can illuminate the parts of life that are still good.
It reminds us that even in the middle of something painful,
There may be a moment of beauty,
Of love,
Of laughter,
Or connection waiting to be noticed.
When I make space for joy,
I seem to notice more of it.
Not because the difficult things disappear,
But because they aren't the only thing that exists.
This isn't a practice of being happy,
Even when life feels hard.
It's a practice of finding little sparks of good,
Of love.
And even our hardest days.
Even on the days when the darkness feels like it's taking over.
I hope you leave a little room for joy to find you.
Not to fix it,
Not to make the hard things beautiful,
Just to remind you they are not the whole story.
Thank you so much for joining me here today.
I hope you enjoyed this talk about joy.
And I hope to see you back here in the future.
Have a lovely day.
