What is JOY?

In one of my classes yesterday, the Professor posed the question, "What is Joy?". We had to ponder it for a bit. There were a variety of answers. It was interesting to see how joy was defined by each of the students.

Some of the answers given in class were:

*Happiness
*Laughter
*A day without anxiety or depression
*My husband
*My Children
*Contentment
*Achievement
*Blue skies
*Being in this class (okay, so this kid was a bit of a brown-noser, haha ;)
*Etc.

Webster defines joy as:

joy (joi), n. 1. a feeling or state of great delight or happiness; keen pleasure; elation. 2. a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight. 3. causing or bringing joy; delightful.

For me, I think that joy can be found in the simple things. For instance, yesterday morning I was rushing around like crazy. It isn't easy to get myself and all of the kids up and ready for the day so that I can leave the house by 7:10am. It was hectic and insane. No time to eat. Grab a yogurt and run out the door. Get in the car and find that I am leaving 5 minutes later than I needed to, kind of a morning.

I got to the school and parked. I was getting out of the car and out of the corner of my eye saw the St. George temple standing there with its lights on. I thought how lucky I am to live in this beautiful place and to be finishing up my degree.

As crazy as life is, it really is the simple things that bring true joy. A glimpse of the beautiful white building surrounded by the red rocks caught for just an instant out of the corner of my eye did it for me yesterday.

Have you ever thought about what brings YOU joy?