Weekly Message from Traceymay

Dear Friend,
Three times in the past two days I have found myself (in separate conversations) asking the questions “What is feeding you right now?  What is bringing you even a little bit of joy in your life?”  If I am asking this question of others, I should be able to answer it myself.  To that end, I want to share a little story with you.
On the winter break from school, at the end of February, my youngest daughter and I decided to take an overnight trip to the seacoast.  We left after church on Sunday and as we were driving east I asked her to call our usual Motel 6 in Portsmouth to reserve a room.  She was having a difficult time getting through on the phone so, on a whim, I told her to try the Anchorage Inn in York, Maine.  The Anchorage is a place we used to go when the kids were very very young because it’s across the street from the ocean, there is an indoor pool, and winter rates are reasonable (only 20 dollars more that Motel 6, it turns out).  My daughter easily got through and reserved us a room, but then she realized she had no swim suit.  She found on her phone that there was a Target store not far ahead, so we stopped there, found a suit for her, grabbed some food from the grocery section and went to the self-checkout.  There, on the self-checkout counter was a little wind-up duck, all yellow and fluffy, and it made my heart jump (literally).  I love wind up hoppy toys and this one was, in my opinion, ADORABLE.  What was it doing there all by itself?  I thought perhaps it is broken.  I wound it up and set it to hopping down the counter and in that moment I was totally hooked.  I swiped it through the scanner and out we went.
Now the little fluffy thing lives on the dash of my car and I can not tell you how many times I have wound it up and set it to hopping just to lift my spirits.
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that bring us joy.  I hope there is at least one thing in your life that is reliably bringing you joy these days.  If not, I encourage you to find something, Friend.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.     -Philipians 4:8