Let’s talk JOY! All of us can sing the wonderful song from the movie, Sound of Music, “My Favorite Things.” Joy is like that. Little things that in an instance, in a moment, bring joy. I love the mountains. I love being in them, looking at them, the splendor, the majesty explodes my joy. The sight of mountains or even how they feel on a cool summer evening; or around a mountain fire when it warms my face. Joy is the simple, mindless delight of watching wood burn. Joy can fill our souls.

Maria Montessori defines joy “as feeling one’s own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.”

So, a deduction might be – without joy in our soul, in our heart, in our head – it truly impacts what we do and who we are.

So, Ann McGee-Cooper got it so right. We make our JOY to impact who we are and what we do.

Here are a few more things in my little book from the five to 30-minute section:

…have an uninterrupted conversation with my husband
…put my headphones on and listen to a favorite tape or record (decade indicator. LOL)
…rock one of my children (a tear falls at how fast they grew up)
…take a hot bubble bath

From the 30 minutes to 2-hour section:

…have lunch with a special friend
…bake something special for someone special
…go somewhere special with my daughter or my son just for their enjoyment

See how simple it is? It really is just about being mindful that we need joy. Life is full of so many responsibilities or demands and so very quickly they can steal our Joy. The Joy we transmit to those we love and those with whom we work and those with whom we want to learn, inspire and motivate. Joy is the seed of passion.