Oh the joy of summer. The warm breezes blowing across the green grass. The sounds of kids chasing the sun to stay above the horizon just a little longer. The excitement of heading to the lake and the screaming race down the hill to the dock throwing off the shorts and shirt and the unbridled jump into the shock of the cool water. This is what the kids have waited for all those long spring days behind the desk of math and English classes. Summer anticipation is within sight…all that excitement and joy is just a bell ring away.

I am currently reading a book I received for my birthday from my husband, “The Second Mountain” by David Brooks. This book basically has said, “Julie this is what you were trying to figure out in your life right at this moment.” True story. In my 56 years of life I “believed” if I fulfilled certain requirements I would find happiness. I also equated the words joy and happiness together. I had my four beautiful children and they have brought me great joy along with my grandchildren. I found happiness in EMS and 911 dispatching, in friendships and other relationships. Climbing this mountain with these “joys” were all I would need because in our society culture pushes the belief that I should be happy with what I have attained on my climb. Well, yes I am/was happy. I met my culture goal…happiness and happiness is great! Granted I slipped off the side of it a few times. I have tumbled all the way to the bottom and was lodged in crevices for periods of times but I found my way out and climbed that same mountain, my mountain. I have reached the top of my mountain. I sat at the top of mountain I look out at the view…my life and have come to realize that there is more. There is more joy. There is more life. There is another mountain…the “second mountain.”

On the second mountain that I did not even know I was climbing was myself finding a life more centered on meaning and purpose. It is not a life of comparison or one of expectation, or a life that expresses prestige. It is a view of personal fulfillment in my marriage and family, to my faith, and to my well-being with a mental border. As I climb this second mountain I am finding true joy. As David Brooks writes in his book, “Happiness tends to be individual; we measure it by asking, ‘Are you happy?’ Joy tends to be self-transcending. Happiness is something you pursue; joy is something that rises up unexpectedly and sweeps over you. Happiness comes from accomplishments; joy comes from offering gifts. Happiness fades; we get used to the things that used to make us happy. Joy doesn’t fade. To live with joy is to live with wonder, gratitude, and hope.”

The excited thirteen-year-old runs and jumps off the dock and at that point she is committed. She plugs her nose and screams at the top of her lungs and jumps for joy into lake. Just as she is committed to that jump I am committed to all the joy I have through the wonder, gratitude and hope found through my transformation on my mountain.

Are you happy or do you have joy?