Touched by Joy

Before I had children I had an unspoken, subconscious, and totally unrealistic expectation of what I thought life would be like.

Basically, I thought life would be like a shampoo commercial.

Not an R-rated shampoo commercial, like you'd see today. A shampoo commercial like you'd see in the 70's or 80's — where the blonde mother and child, dressed in white, run in slow motion through fields of wheat. (Sorry--can't find any pictures so you'll have to imagine it.)

That was what I thought life was going to be like.

I was mistaken.

Instead of a shampoo commercial, I had a sick baby. Instead of a shampoo commercial, I found out that I was always exhausted. Instead of a shampoo commercial I was cranky and so were they and then on top of everything there were triplets.

And nothing was ever in slow motion, except perhaps the cleaning up of vomit.

---

Every now and then, though, there was a moment.

A moment that seemed like it was almost removed from time, a moment that was extraordinarily beautiful and felt tinged with gold. I started calling them my shampoo commercial moments.

For many years it puzzled me. What was this moment, and what did it mean?

Finally I decided that it was some kind of stamp of approval by the Spirit — a bit of affirmation.

---

The other day a lovely friend of mine blogged about joy. She quoted Sister Barbara Thompson, a counselor in the General Relief Society presidency in our church. Sister Thompson said,

Feeling joy is a manifestation
of the presence of the Spirit.

---

So that's what it was. The shampoo commercial moments were moments where the spirit showed me the joy that was my life.

Even if we weren't wearing white....

Or running in slow motion.....