Driving me home.

Challenge #15

Talk about an unexpected joyous moment you experienced last year.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

There were a lot of moments of expected joy last year, like standing in the path of totality - the 2024 eclipse had been expected for a very long time - or attending a friend's wedding or knowing the movie I was going to see would knock my socks off seeing it on the big screen or knowing how good it'd feel to hug someone.

There was a lot of unexpected joy which came about because I gave into impulse: to say hello. To buy that movie ticket. To go to that performance. To ask if I could. To know that I could ask, and then to do the asking. To be able to accept the answer, whatever it was. To hear that the answer was yes. Yes you can come with us, yes you can stay, yes you've made me laugh.

Yes, you're my friend.

Yes, and thank you. Thank you for baking the cakes. Thank you for validating my feelings. Thank you for helping me. Thank you for finding something I wanted. Thank you for giving me something I didn't know I needed.

Thank you for being there. Thank you for being my friend.

To hear thank you, and to hear someone laugh because of what I'd said. To hear someone be happy I was there. To hear I was worth someone's time. To hear my writing was worth someone's time. To hear my apology was accepted when I fucked up, and to hear I hadn't fucked up after all. To hear I'd done well. To hear I was welcome.

To hear I'd brought joy to someone, and in doing so, brought it back to myself.