Finding moments of joy.

I really do try to find moments of joy in my everyday life. It’s not easy, often, with the way the world is and the usual pressures and demands, but it’s still important to me to try.

When I was in Berlin last week, the breakfast room had an automatic pancake machine. Reason enough for a moment of joy in the morning, all by itself. Even better, though, was my first time using it.

When you press the button, it will produce and then, shortly later, deliver to you two pancakes. So I pressed the button twice, slid my plate under the little conveyor belt, and waited. About a minute later, a perfect pancake slid onto my plate. Then 10 seconds later, another. But this one was maybe half the size of the first and dropped right on top.

-Another 10 seconds, another pancake, and this one was even smaller - half the size of the second. It slid off and dropped right on the top of the pile.

A final 10-second wait, and I had my last pancake. Half the size, again, of the previous and perhaps no bigger than a 10-cent piece. A pancake for a gnome, maybe? A perfect, tiny pancake.

I loved it. I wept with laughter, showed the people I was sitting with, and it really brightened my morning. I was laughing too much, and too eager to eat a miniature pancake to snap a photo. But I did get a pic of this other little moment of joy, later the same day…