Joy

As a companion to the previous picture.

One of the memories that sticks with me, nagging me over my left shoulder as I walk down a flight of stairs and as I drive home in the evening, is of a conversation I had 10+ years ago in a white pick up truck, driving back to school from Easton, PA. I was bumming a ride from a friend of a friend who rode/owned horses, probably professionally now.  I don’t really remember what she looked like but I remember the conversation, or at least one piece of it.  

I remember her saying the reason why she got up in the morning was to be with her horse and then the follow-up. Why’d I get up in the morning?  With an early 20s profundity, I said it being able to get up in the morning was the reason I was getting up.  That there was another day out there.  And beyond the triteness, it was to the bone accurate. 

Every day you need to scrape and claw to reclaim the joy and optimism in those eyes.