Summer Assignment

Before my daughter heads off to school each morning, I remind her to “send me a photo of something that makes you smile today.” It might be something as seemingly small as a green acorn on the side of the road, but asking for that little photo helps put her in a mindset to be on the lookout for joy.

Because when we’re on the lookout for joy, we can usually find it. 

Of course, the opposite is true, too. When we’re on the lookout for frustration, comparison, perceived affronts, or anger, we are REALLY good at finding those too. Our brains love a well-worn path and following the direction we’ve told it to go, so whatever we are used to looking for we are certain to find. 

If you haven’t searched for joy before (or in a long time) it can feel like trying to flex a muscle you haven’t used in a long time. You may wonder if you still have it, or if you left it back in high school gym class. It can almost feel like trudging through an overgrown field. If you haven’t searched for joy before, your brain might be confused; this is not the path it is used to traveling.

Like a trailblazer, when we search for joy for the first time in a long time, we have to leave the familiar pathways and clear out the brush and stickers. But the more we direct our brains to travel that path, the more our brains say, “oh, I remember this way! I know what to do” and it will help us find our way to joy.

As we prepare for our Fall Semester (beginning next week),  I’m giving you and I a little “End of Summer Assignment.” No book reports or citation formatting required, just one simple task:

Take a picture of something in your home that makes you smile. Every day.