They Catch My Breath

 Apple blossoms in last year's garden - not that far along yet this year

There I was waiting mindlessly for my turn at the drive-through window, when I found myself in the midst of an apple blossom blizzard.

Living in Alberta and well used to freak spring snow storms, for half a second I thought it was snowing. But no, it was apple petals adrift on the morning breeze...falling everywhere, even inside my car. That's when I felt a joy bubble bursting up from my heart! What fun! What beauty!

We all know how elusive soap bubbles are...light, frothy, and then poof they're gone. It seems joy bubbles are like that; they’re the tiniest of gifts that float by, that when we do stop and receive them, they turn an ordinary or even a fractious moment into one of Grace. Loveliness. Rest.

I call them 'joy bubbles' because usually when I experience this feeling, I actually feel it bubble up from deep on the inside, and the joy almost catches my breath as the sweetness and beauty of the moment washes over me.  C.S. Lewis calls it being 'surprised by joy'. 

It's the unexpectedness of these moments out of nowhere that causes the joy, I think. So often we're just minding our own business, getting on with things, and then, like a gift from heaven, it whams our hearts and nourishes it, turning our world right-side-up.

So simple these pleasures are sometimes -- often in fact -- yet these tiny treasures give me the greatest joy bubbles. Here are five from the last day or so:

1. The curtains catching the gentle breeze and making them billow and waft;
2. Hearing the first sleepy notes of our robins as we leave for work in the morning;
3. The glorious shades of Spring greens bursting out all over this week;
4. Going to sleep last night in my spring-cleaned bedroom -- that's bliss!
5. Finally finding just the right word and then being able to press 'publish'.

So, Dear Ones, I'm wishing you your own glimpses of heaven today...
Hugs,
Brenda
xox