Sometimes Joy

It started with a giggle.
The giggle turned into some sort of guttural sound from the deep.
Then it morphed into uncontrollable laughing.
The kind that makes tears form and pour forth from your eyes.
And then that moment where it was way past the point of no return.

Yes.
That was me.
At a table in a restaurant.

And you know what else?

It was freeing.

I hadn't laughed like that in such a long time.
Memories of childhood giggle-fits at the dinner table with my sisters, flooded my mind.
Makes me wonder what it is about supper time.
The gathering of loved ones around a table. Conversation and silliness. Conversation causing silliness.

There is freedom in laughter.
When nothing matters in that moment.
Joy takes over and gives a brief suspension from all things ~ from fretting, from fearing, from decisions, from worry, from caring about what others think.
Because in the take-over, joy controls.
And it leads like a wave, pushing forth, unrestrained.
It moves from the giggle to the hard-core belly laugh.
That wave that rises and rises, then crashes down with power and ripples.

Sometimes joy takes you when you aren't expecting it, just for fun.
Sometimes joy pursues you quietly, subtly, then out of the blue, hits with full force.
Sometimes joy sees that you need the release, the finding of freedom.
Even for just a moment.
Sometimes joy embraces and pulls you in.
Sometimes joy grabs you and swings you out and around.
Sometimes joy seems to know when you need it.
Even when you don't know how to have it.
Joy just comes.
Because it is always there.
We don't always see it and we surely don't always feel it.
But it sits under the surface sometimes, until we are ready for it to wallop us so hard that we are no longer able to suppress it.

Sometimes joy just does its freedom thing.
The joy take-over.
Giggles to belly laughs.
And laughter does a good, good thing.

"A joyful heart is good medicine ... " (Proverbs 17:22, ESV)