Joy—that wonderful elated feeling that washes over us all too rarely—comes in many forms. It doesn’t just manifest with a giddy smile and some jumping up and down. In fact, sometimes joy is quiet. It’s the colleague who smiles confidently after a big win at work. Or the parent watching her kids play on a sunny day, feeling her heart swell and thinking, It just doesn’t get better than this moment.
But joy is also loud. It can be raw, surprising and overwhelming. It can vibrate to your very core. Just watch this little girl, Marley Drew, as she walks into her bedroom to find that her mother had finally given her the kitten of her dreams. Her heart bursts. And it’s just so beautiful (and funny and adorable) to see.
It’s no wonder this little clip has gotten 34 million views on Facebook. It’s probably the best cat video I’ve ever seen on the internet. (And, yes, like you, I’ve probably seen thousands.)
Watching this sweet girl try to speak through her tears of excitement, it occurred to me that I’ve seen this form of joy before in children, such as this young girl named Lily, who, upon learning that she was going to Disneyland, reacted in a very similar way:
It’s enough to make her mother cry, too.
But this form of joy is so rarely seen in adults … even though there isn’t anything wrong with it.
Women, especially, are such complicated emotional gems: Sometimes we need a good cry when something is truly sad, and sometimes we need a good cry to celebrate something amazing, like a marriage proposal, a child’s graduation, a good deed, a vacation, or, yes … a kitten.
So next time you feel joy creeping into your heart, don’t try to control it. Take a page from little Marley Drew or Lily, and just let joy wash over you in its entirety. Let your cup run over.
And today we celebrate...