Honey, the Mail is Here!

I love getting the mail. When it goes to 5 days a week I will be sad. The mailman is a nice guy and I enjoy chatting with him, long enough to appreciate him but not so long as to make him late, for an important date or anything else.

Sometimes he brings great surprises. Rarely are the pleasant ones advertising. But this week I rec'd an oversized postcard which I was happy to get. Not that I'm in a buying phase, not when I need to get my glasses fixed, just spent a bundle for 11 pets flea or flea and heartworm meds for 4 months (big mistake before taxes are due), and when I need new tires. Thanks anyway, BMW.

Thanks, because you sent me a postcard with a reminder about life's reality. At a time when this country, this world, STILL is fighting to keep its economic head above water, when change is everything we bargained for and a whole lot more, when I'm relating more and more to what my grandparents and parents were thinking, BMW comes along with a simple declarative statement: JOY SHOWS NO SIGNS OF SLOWING DOWN.

Admittedly, my first thought raced to our Frieda Joy, gone for 5 months and grieved every day. She was joy in breathing form, even though she never developed the confidence to recognize it in herself. But she had gumption; she TRIED continually, striving to BE. It just couldn't be and she was so unselfish.

Which brings me to a choice. This free will thing God heaped upon us has blessing/curse traits. Either I can celebrate her or weep at the first sign of her image or personality. Probably there are places for each. What a waste of her life it would be if I chose only to weep.

Instead I embrace the sentence sent without knowledge of the days I wish I'd never given her "Joy" as a middle name. It shows up far more now than I ever realized. But this sentence says so much, so much which is bigger than my heart's wounds from loving and losing a tremendous dog far too soon.

JOY SHOWS NO SIGNS OF SLOWING DOWN. It brings me relief. It brings me compassion, even consolation. I realize my beauty girl will never slow down, never stop teaching, even in her absence. And, she will never stop delivering joy. Would that I could emulate her. Would that I could teach others of joy, could give it in its intangible form, in a way which allows me to turn and walk away, smiling to myself about the outburst the recipient is about to enjoy. See? There is joy in enjoy/enjoyment.

Thank you, BMW. Your marketing gurus had no clue. Thank you, USPS, your sorters and delivery folks had no clue. Thank you for reminding me. Joy is everywhere. It is here to stay. It cannot be drawn into the battles of daily life for it is above and beyond those. At the end of the day, think about the joy of having lived it.

JOY SHOWS NO SIGNS

OF SLOWING DOWN!