Skipping Stones and Forgetting Joy

​Maybe you can relate. Maybe you woke up this morning and the air was crisp and the blankets felt great and your heart swelled with joy. Maybe you woke up with a laugh on your lips and a song in your head. Maybe you were able to give the cutest kids a hug and kiss your dear husband goodbye when he left for work. And maybe, maybe, you thought to yourself, “today is a good day.”

Then, maybe, maybe, piece by piece the joy was stripped away. And suddenly you felt colder than the air outside. Or maybe it felt more like one tiny stone at a time being laid on your shoulders, light at first then heavier and heavier.

You knew they were stacking up, but you put your head down and moved forward any way. Maybe you flinched every time a new stone was dropped and you felt the tension reaching your ears but you ignored it thinking, “there’s simply too much to do.”

And now, its mid-afternoon and you wonder what happened. Where the joy went. Where the peace went. Where the laughter went. Where the song went. You know this isn’t a feeling another cup of coffee can fix (although it wouldn’t hurt), so you try that first. Then it, too, grows cold.

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