Joy

We grow up being taught that life is hard, and happiness is reserved for rich people. Somehow, the myth that only rich people are happy is alive and well. Spoiler alert: they are not.

Yet, kids are always joyous — regardless of their socio-economic status. They find joy in the littlest things — chasing a butterfly, smelling a flower, playing in the sand. The discovery of the world around them, element by element, is what gives them joy. As they grow up, two things seem to emerge:

1. They are indoctrinated with the “happiness is only reserved for special people” (or, a variation of it, “only crazy people are happy”), and
2. They stop finding joy in new things, not because they run out of things to find, but because they don’t look at the world through the eyes of a child excited to discover new things. They look through the eyes of a tired, bored, older-beyond-their-age adult who just want the pain to stop.

There is still a lot to be discovered every single day — only if we chose to look.

What have you discovered today?