A couple weeks ago I sent out an invitation for you to be my Weekend Guest by guest posting on Chasing Joy. I am happy to welcome our first Weekend Guest, Keazy. Keazy is an easy going guy that has an open mind and loves to learn. That sounds like a perfect foundation for Chasing Joy. Here is his post: Changing Your Mindset to Accepting Joy
I am a firm believer that there is joy in almost everything we do. You can find Joy in things that most will not. Take for instances myself, I find joy in driving, making that special one feel special and helping others in need. I have learned to accept that warm feeling in my heart when Joy comes my way. That special feeling inside that you know you can’t shake and you know that it’s there.
Over the years, I have been changing my mindset to be more accepting of things, especially Joy. I can remember two of the worst days of my life when I really realized that life is short and accepting Joy can really change my life. The first time was about 6 years ago when my best friend committed suicide. I will never forget that day because I fell into a very deep depression, very dark place in my life. I shut myself off to the world and couldn’t find a way to snap out it. Months went by and I didn’t see any Joy coming my way.
The one thing that came out of this was that rest of my best friends and I have become closer. It was like an unspoken bond between us and I remember the year when we went to Virginia Beach for vacation one of my friends stated that “you know we are missing one”. All of us said at the same time, “I was just thinking the same thing”. Lots of things were said in that mall where we were popping tags like we were CEO’s. We all found Joy in the fact that we were all closer after his death even though we were still grieving. We changed our mindset to accept the Joy that was given to us even in sorrow. Opened up our hearts and feeling about what happen only to realize that we are now brothers for life. An unbelievable feeling.
The other bad day in my life was this past July when my grandmother passed away. The glue to our family was gone just like that. It hurt so badly because it was two days after I celebrated my 33rd birthday. I remember attending a cook out during the evening in which I stayed at a friend’s house and I got the phone call at 5 in the morning from my father and he said I need to come home now. My parents told me the news and I was devastated. I couldn’t breathe; I just sat in the chair and took it all in.
I was more in shock than anything else. As I was having a good time at the cook out my grandmother was dying and when I found out the time she passed, I couldn’t believe it because she had crossed my mind that instant and I said I would call her in the morning. She was off and on sick and I told myself that I would take the drive down to South Carolina to see her but I never made it. I regret that decision to this day.
We left that morning to drive down to South Carolina and when I was behind the wheel, I just thought about every year, us taking this same trip down 95 south to South of the Border to get on to US 301/501 to Conway and US 701 to Georgetown. I can drive to my grandmas with my eyes closed I know these roads so well. Walking into her house for the first time and realizing that when I ring this doorbell, she will not be on the other end of the door to let me in just melted my heart away. I finally realized that this is real. My dad was very encouraging to me saying “son, you are not going through this alone; every one misses her just like you”. I wasn’t trying to hear that, I just wanted my grandma back.
The moment my cousins arrived we all just gave each other big hugs. My oldest cousin Eric proceeded to go to the back yard and just sit and we all joined him. We started telling funny stories about grandma beating us and the way she would always cook all this food for us to eat and how they were jealous of me and my brother because they thought she gave us special treatment because we come from Philadelphia and they saw her every day. Little did they know I felt jealous of them because they were able to spend time with her whenever they wanted. As we continued to drink Crown Royal and coke, we decided as cousins, that we would not let this death break up the family. We have all gotten closer as a unit and I could not be happier with my family. We all changed our mindset from sadness to the Joy that she brought to all of our lives. There is sunshine under every cloudy sky.
You can find Joy in almost anything in this world. You just have to change your mindset in order to accept it instead of running away from it. Listen to your heart, it tells you what your Joy is.
To read more of Keazy's work visit his blog A New Beginning, friend him on Facebook, and follow him on Twitter
If you'd like to be a weekend guest email me your post at [email protected] and find additional information on guest posting qualifications here.
