How would you describe your best day? I know how I would, it just happened yesterday. For the first time since our two little granddaughters were born we had our whole family together. It was the first time the two cousins had met each other. There were dozens of photo-ops as you can imagine watching them play together, each one just walking or learning to walk. We all laughed, played games, and ate too much as we shared stories about raising children. Having our brood all together gave Tee and I a sense of joy and completeness about our family. It was our best day.
Best days don’t just occur on rare occasions like that one, though. It’s not just about having family or friends around in some ideal setting when everything is perfect. If that were the case most of us would wait a lifetime. Instead to experience a best day is to feel and express unconditional love knowing that it cannot be taken away. It is about joy rather than happiness which are not necessarily the same thing. Yesterday, for example, was not without tears. Madeline and Zoey, our granddaughters, both had occasions of falling down, bumping their heads or mashing their little fingers. I’m not sure it’s possible for a one-year-old to go through a day without tears. Yet there was joy in the midst of tears, for there was never a doubt about how much they were loved.
Best days occur not from luck or coincidence but because we choose for them to happen. We all have a choice, not so much in regard to our life circumstances, but in regard to how we respond to those circumstances. Two people can be victims of the same accident, for instance, and for one it becomes a source of resentment while for the other it is a source of gratitude. Some people become bitter in old age, others joyful. It’s a choice. Watching two happy little girls frolic and play was a result of the choices their parents have made in raising their families, to be loving and devoted moms and dads – of children being a blessing rather than a burden. It’s a choice.
Yesterday did not happen by accident. It was the result of years of loving and caring within our family through multiple generations and the choices made along the way. It was our best day. . . . How would you describe your best day?