love/joy // 7

In college, a friend and I committed to "keeping love and joy alive" by paying tribute to the ideals themselves. Whenever we got together we would "love/joy"- share one way we'd experienced love and one way we'd experienced joy that day. Even on the worst of days, we could still dig and find these things to be true: we are loved & we experience joy. Here are mine for this week:

love//
Jake is not a worrier. He's confident and spontaneous and worrying doesn't make sense to him. Yet, last night Jake came into the living room around 9:30PM and said, "you should go to bed, I'm worried about you." I thought he was kidding and asked if he was serious. "Yes. I'm worried about you. Please go to bed." Worried? About me? That was all I needed to hear and I wobbled my achy pregnant body upstairs to bed. I come from worrying stock and his concern translated into rainbow-beams of love pouring in my direction. And I'm grateful today, not just for the sleep. A fuller night of rest is already making this day better than the last, but I also slept more soundly too. I think it was those rainbow-beams. 

joy//
Irrational concerns! Arbitrary worry! Jake is not a worrier, but, goodness me, I have a healthy worrying streak. To boot, pregnancy hormones have lead to the occasional absurd sudden concern. One that has popped up several times while commuting: "what if we don't get a car seat!?" For some reason I'd suddenly have this fear that we'd end up with a newborn and without a car seat. The weird thing- I know we would just buy a car seat. O b v i o u s l y. Yet, I'd have this irrational worry bubble to the surface as if we are incapable of purchasing one ourselves. So, imagine my irrational, pregnancy hormone joy at opening our front door last night and seeing, perched on our front step as if dropped by a very large stork, OUR CAR SEAT (a gift from Jake's parents). Needless to say, I immediately read the user manual and installed it in my car. In the dark. Then, oh the joy, I practiced taking it in and out of the car this morning at work.