My First Happy Moment

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One of my happiest moments of my life starts with my first happiest moment.

Growing up I could not shake a feeling that I had forgotten a lingering memory. One day after school when I was in kindergarten, I walked into my kitchen’s breakfast nook which was flooded with sunlight.  We had larger windows on three sides of this nook and it was up against our atrium that was filled with sunlight.

I guess I was having a good day, plus I had nothing to complain about in my life at that point.  So as I set my backpack on the table, my attention turned outside to the beautiful spring day and I was overwhelmed by the sunlight.  Almost instantly I was submerged by a tidal wave of happiness and love for myself and my life. In that instant, everything that I had learned about life thus far could never have taught me or shown me how to feel such pure love.  It was natural and easy and in that moment I just let life flow through me.  It felt like a distant memory; something familiar that came effortlessly and naturally.  Basking in the brightness of life I felt gratitude to be in this place at this time, and I felt thankful for my family, home and the gracious life that has been given to me by the creator.

The love I felt in that moment was unexplainable and was a gift from the creator.  I was young and it was an amazing feeling of pure joy and appreciation.  The level of joy took no effort, as if the potential to love that much had been inside of me all along; I just needed a catalyst to discover that happiness and understand my own capacity for love.

As easily as that wave of happiness had come, it left.  My mind was unable to fully understand the importance of that moment on my being, but I knew I would never forget it.

So I began my life’s journey through elementary school. It was hard but easy at the same time. Children can be little balls of joy and yet so cruel to others. It always amazed me how children’s decisions were run by pure emotion; basically by two polar opposite sides of our existence.  The love of life and at the same time, the jealousy for others determined how they treated their peers.  Kids do not know how to control these urges.  The urge to put down other human beings to make themselves feel better, and instead show respect and the importance of spreading their happiness for life with others.  School always seemed to be filled with little trials and tribulations, although there were never any major problems with my life till one day in the 7th grade…

“Love never gives up. Love cares for others more than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, it isn’t always “me first,” doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies” (1 Corinthians 13, The Message).

By: Curtis Brooks