contagious delight

I firmly believe that God has graced me with a gift of delight. So many things catch my eye, thrill my soul, and make me smile! I realized today how much I want to spread that joy to others, to splash a little sunlight into the worlds of those around me. Because I believe that the world, though badly broken, is still beautiful, and that even the darkest parts are softened by the healing light of Christ.

One of my friends shared this quote from a textbook she is reading for young adult literature, and it tugged at me. Perhaps egotistically, but desperately nonetheless, I want this sentiment to be true of me.

"She was bendable light: she shone around every corner of my day.

She taught me to revel. She taught me to wonder. She taught me to laugh. My sense of humor had always measured up to everyone else's; but timid, introverted me, I showed it sparingly: I was a smiler. In her presence I threw back my head and laughed out loud for the first time in my life.

She saw things. I had not known there was so much to see...."

-Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl