Is Your Life Joy Full?

Is Your Life Joy Full?

This morning, when I got to Pearson airport, things were a bit grim. The day before there was the big Air Canada debacle and then today the Nor’easter so flights were delayed, bumped or cancelled all together and this is March Break. You can imagine….right?

But a baggage guy, full of joy with a big toothy smile, wasn’t having any of it. Instead of droning on like his co-workers, he sang all of the instructions to me to a Reggae beat and ended with “have a beautiful day” and then erupted into a hearty laugh. He was filled with joy and some spilled over onto me.

I needed every bit of it. Three hour delay to get out of Toronto, flight diverted to Milwaukee because of bad weather in Chicago, ready to take off again for Chicago after fuelling up (in time for me to make my connection to San Diego) and the crew timed out and we were stuck in Milwaukee. We had been on the tarmac for over an hour. Most of us had been up early to catch the flight. And then it took over an hour to get our bags off the plane. No food, no sleep, no way to get to my destination could have turned me into full-on bitch.

Instead, I thought of the baggage guy and how he helped me in the morning. So, I became the passenger advocate, getting information, talking a poor girl off the ledge who has a major speech to give tomorrow with lots riding on it and she wasn’t sure if she would make it, or helping others get hotel and food vouchers.

There was a man on my flight that was, let’s say crotchety before we even got on the plane because it was late. When he came down to get his bag in Milwaukee, he was complaining for all to hear. I told him that in the big scheme of things this isn’t so bad. We started talking and he asked me how I could be happy about this. I said I am not really happy but I am trying to make joy my default. He said, and I am not making this up, that aggravated is his natural state and he likes it. Then we both laughed. And the people around us started laughing. And then we all started to share the few good things that came out of it all. That area of the airport became joy full.

And it all started with that baggage handler in the morning.

You have a choice every day, regardless of what happens to you (I’m in Milwaukee instead of San Diego for goodness sake…no offence Milwaukee but you are no San Diego) whether you are aggravated or joy full. You think it is complicated, but it is not.

You also have a choice whether to share joy with others so they can be joy full too!

Can you imagine if we all had joy as our default?