I read an article in the Reader's Digest a while ago called "Overtaken by Joy."
It describes the condition of life when something is so beautiful that it is
"exultation of spirit" and "exquisite joy".
The author wrote her own moments, and moments of friends and commented that those moments come rarely in our lives because we are too busy to find them.
I'm looking at my photos and finding some that remind me of days of "exquisite joy."
You know, those days when the sun comes below the clouds
in the evening and turns everything to gold.
Or walking down the road in the glory of gold and green and red with the
"bright, blue sky" above in October.
To watch the sun rise on a clear day, so turn from midnight blue with red around the edges to gold and pink and azure, until the sun blazes up in a glory of light in ever changing blueness.
Then there are the days where the sun shines so brightly on the ice on the branches of trees so they look like they are glazed, and I forget that ice is damaging.
And those few days with a perfect fall of snow, coming down like a white veil, obscuring the view except for the nearest houses.
Tonight, looking back at an especially nice photo book I made for my daughter when she was 15, pushed me over the top. It was made for all the right reasons. A little snapshot of her life so far, and encouraging words to help her go on. A remembering time of baby days, and school days, and preparing for adult days. It is exquisite joy to think of the making of the book and even more so to think of the making of a life.
May it be so.
