Pure Joy

I could tell that the 2020 Christmas cards I chose were special when I first laid eyes on them. They were unique and had a perfectly simple message.

Though it’s difficult to tell from the photo they’re really quite unique. They’re box-like, bordered in deep metallic red, containing sparkly sequins that dance and float around the central theme of JOY.

And I still loved them even when they didn’t fit into the bulging suitcase I’d brought on my trip to Texas. Their cute packaging had to be ditched so they could be individually tucked in here and there amongst my things in order to get them home.

My heartfelt holiday sentiments had been written, the envelopes addressed, the festive stamps applied. They’d been safely delivered to the local Post office and were on their way across town and across the country. Done! But then three days later a batch of them were returned to me labeled “Insufficient Postage.” Dang it! The next day a few more came back. All right, I should’ve known better because, as I said, they were box-like, a little more than a quarter inch thick. Back to the PO I went and was told they were too thick to fit through the postal metering machines. Each one would have to be hand processed at the princely sum of four dollars each!

Are you kidding me? Where was the warning label on the box? Oh, right. I threw it away in Texas. So the box wouldn’t fit and then the cards themselves wouldn’t fit either.

But . . . true JOY always fits into any heart that will let JOY in.

After a difficult year in so many, many ways, from my heart to yours, card or no card, I wish you pure JOY.

Merry Christmas!