I had an amazing day today! My brother and I went on a long run/hike up Santa Fe Mountain. There was so much beauty, starting in the desert and then rising up with pines and then high meadows filled with wild flowers and big aspens followed by fir forests with lush green understory. And the weather was perfect (on the way up) never above 65 degrees F. The trail was mostly rolling with some steep parts. I love running and I love the Rockies and I love my brother. It made for a great day. But where I found my #child-likejoy was when running down. There were many rolling parts that weren’t steep and had a flat or gently upslopes afterward. On these, I would freewheel, just like I ran as a child. My face would spontaneously break into a Cheshire Cat grin and I would yell, “Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!” just like I did when I was a kid. Before I started my new path, my transition, I would have been concerned about what my brother thought and what the many other people on the trail thought, but not today. I repeated this ~ 10 times and each time by body was flooded with pure joy. This I want to have more in my life! Getting over the fear of what others think of me is a big part of experiencing pure, child-like joy.
How do you experience joy? What brings that wide grin spontaneously to your face? Whatever it is, I hope you practice it this this weekend, which will make it a great weekend.
Here’s to joy!
Art
This was a great sunset too!
