My brother brought up a good point on my last post. And after mulling over it for a bit... I realized (again) that happiness is different than joy. How so? Let's see... chocolate makes me happy. A beautiful day makes me happy. Having the kids actually pick up after themselves makes me happy. Now, what about joy? After dealing with infertility for 7 years and having our first child placed in my arms brought me exquisite joy. After fighting the slowness of the Indiana courts and finally having our son be free to join our family was joyful. Having the funds, thanks to my Mom to buy a new, high-tech hearing-aid brought me joy in being able to actually understand what it means to hear the 'fullness', the 'roundness' of music. Being able to conceive a child and go through the birthing process brought me joy.


I confused the two. Happiness vs. Joy. Happiness can be fleeting. It's real but it's not long-lasting. Joy is... happiness on a much higher plane. It brings one a certain sense of... spiritual euphoria. Does that make sense? So, while I'm fighting this depression, I most certainly need to work at being happy. But also having a joyful spirit.

Did I just convolute things even more? Yikes.

Yesterday, I told my children I loved them and why. I didn't get the house picked-up though. Sorry, Hero. It made me happy though, that you didn't crank about it. haha! ♥