Jar of Joy

Every Friday in 2024, the last task I did before walking away from my desk was grabbing a sticky note, adding the date and writing something that happened that week that I am grateful for or excited happened. It brought me a minute of joy to think about that activity each week but also watching my pretty jar of joy growing, with pretty colored paper of little notes.

On January 1st, coffee in hand, I opened my jar and for the first time read through all the notes I collected, all year. It was incredible to see what was written on those notes; an accomplish of Jarrod at his job, moms healing through the stroke, my sister who lives in CA coming to visit, my aunt visiting us for a week, visiting friends out of state, my four year old niece talking and us understanding her clearly, Deanna’s volleyball wins, Delaney’s dance performances, my work trips that brought new experiences, all the weekend escapes and vacations.

If I ever needed a reminder of what mattered in life, it was right there on all that paper, the people who share my life.

This year, I decided to add something that is happening in the news. As you can imagine, today’s note, which I wrote earlier this week because I had a moment of joy, that would trump all others this week, I added the horrible fires in CA. My sister is out there, we are praying for her and others safety and just trying to wrap our minds around the unimaginable.

This is the first week of 2025, you still have time to grab a jar, put a pretty ribbon on it, and do the same exercise every week or Friday. I promise, on January, 1st, 2026, it will be magical the joy that come back and the reminder of the blessed life you live!