I was looking over my day and realized what a great day it had been. It wasn’t great because I checked off everything on my To Do List. It was great because of a realization that brought me tears of joy.
My wife hadn’t gotten much sleep. Val, our 6 year old granddaughter, was sleeping on the floor in our bedroom. I got up to shower and she saw me. I whispered to her to let grandma sleep and told her I would take a shower and go out with her.
Val did great. We left the bedroom very quietly. She wanted to watch a TV show. I found it and made a cup of coffee. As we sat on the couch together, she leaned over against me. She just wanted to feel close.
Later, we met more of the family at a park. Val’s older brother, Nathan is now 10 years old. While we were walking he came over to hold hands with me and tell me about a summer camp he would be attending in a couple of weeks.
As I walked the dogs that night, I thought about my day. I thought about my grandchildren wanting to feel close to grandpa. That made me feel good too.
Then I thought about the experience in a spiritual sense. I have spent much of my life with the goal of being closer to my spiritual father. It was that realization that brought me tears of joy.
I once looked up research on tears of joy. Psychologists explain it as times when we experience extreme emotion. The thinking was that when we are either profoundly happy or sad, tears of joy cause those around us to try to help bring us back from our extreme. It was thought to be an evolutionary advantage.
We can set goals for ourselves. We can create To Do Lists and gain satisfaction from completing our tasks. We eventually achieve our goals. Yet, for many, the victory seems flat. Is that all there is?
Think of how many celebrities have reached the pinnacle of success and wound up dying of drug overdoses. Success did not bring the happiness they craved.
A closeness to my grandchildren made me realize the importance of my spirituality. I think of Carolyn Jackson’s book, The Spirit of Reiki. “How loved are you? So loved that every leaf on every tree is created especially for you.”
When I read that I saw the statement as a scientific reality, not mere poetry. Light from the leaves of a tree enter your eyes and stimulates your retinae. The stimulation causes signals to be sent to the visual cortex of your brain. You “see” leaves on a tree out there in space. It is all created just for you. Someone watching from a slightly different angle or with different sets of rods and cones will see the same leaves differently. It is created especially for you.
I’m not saying to ignore goal setting. I’m not saying to stop checking your To Do Lists. I am saying to pay more attention to the love you feel around you. Stop and appreciate what you have been given. You never know how much longer you have.