Tag Archives: joy

Meeting Cool People in the Customer Service Line

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I had the best time waiting in the customer service line yesterday.

Earlier in the week I’d bought a DVD that looked to be on sale for $7.99 from its original price of $16.99. When I got home I’d discovered I’d been charged $16.99. At the time I’d just shrugged it off as one of those things and went about life.But yesterday, when I’d been back in the store, I’d seen that movie was STILL on sale for $7.99 and I wondered if I could get reimbursed for the extra I’d paid for it earlier. I didn’t have my receipt with me or anything, but I had my customer ID number in my head and I thought the customer service folks might be able to see my purchasing history in their computers. So I got at the end of the customer service line to find out.

The nicest people were in line with me. The line was pretty long when I got in the back of it, and when a young man wearing a WSU jacket got behind me I suggesed maybe we should shift the line so we didn’t block people from getting past us. He agreed and we started forming the line to the right – but now we were blocking the path to the restroom. The woman in front of me smiled and said that, in her experience, she found it was best to make the line go the other way. So the young man said, “Here, let’s go this way” and stepped aside so I could get in front of him going the other direction. Team work!

There was a lady in front of us who had the coolest hat – it was a panda face hat with ears and a smile. And a gentleman ahead of me, who’d patiently waited in line a really long time, smiled and laughed and thanked the customer service rep. when she was finally able to help him. I gave him a thumbs up as he walked past me on his way out, and he smiled over his mask and gave me a thumbs up back.

When I got to the customer service representative she was so helpful! She told me what I needed to do to take care of my problem – it involved going back into the store to find another copy of the movie and then getting at the end of the customer service line again. I thanked her and went to get the DVD I needed.

When I’d gotten the DVD I needed, I got back at the end of the line. I had a choice at this point – let myself feel frustrated or let myself enjoy the moment. I chose to enjoy the moment. There was, honestly, no place else I would rather have been at that moment than waiting in line with all the other cool customers, watching people and laughing with them. I was safe and comfortable and had everything I needed right there.

There was a young mom in front of me in the line with her son – a little boy of about two with his hands in his pockets – he looked like a little man – so cute! I smiled and waved at him and he smiled and waved back at me – which totally made my day.

When I got back to the customer service rep. she was very efficient and helpful and I ended up getting $9 back, and an apology for being overcharged for the DVD I’d bought on sale earlier in the week.

$9 for standing in line 15 minutes and making new friends seems like a pretty good deal to me.

P.S. The woman with the cool panda hat was Asian; the man who gave me the thumbs up was Black; the woman standing in front of me was White; and the man standing behind me was Latino, I think. I’ll let the little boy with his hands in his pockets represent any little boy anywhere with his hands in his pockets.

Happy Onslaught of Banjos and Love

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(From ten years ago.)

I just had a wonderful drive with Alison Krauss. Well, okay, Alison Krauss wasn’t actually in the car with me. But her voice was. And it was lovely.

I was driving home, after a visit with my parents, and just as I got to Seattle big, fluffy snowflakes started floating down around me. It was like being inside one of those glass bubbles that has “snow” trapped inside it. It was dark, and the snow made it even more difficult to see, but I was suddenly filled with such a sense of peace and joy, that driving felt more like a celebration than a hazard. I’d put an Alison Krauss CD in my car’s CD-player, and, as the snow started falling, her delightful riff leading into the Beatles’ “I Will” filled my car with a playfulness and a joy that was almost tangible. I realized that the cars around me were moving in complete harmony with me and with the song – it was like we were all doing a happy dance together – perfectly-timed and choreographed.

“Who knows how long I’ve loved you? You know I love you still…” I’d always thought those words and that song were romantic – it was a song I’d sung at least once at a wedding. But now I found those words and that song taking on a different meaning for me. My mom’s sweet, smiling face came into focus in my thoughts and I held her there for a moment – just completely filled with the joy of the love we share for each other. Then my dad came through my thoughts, and I mentally hugged him; then my husband, my sons, my co-workers, my bosses, my neighbors, my friends – even those with whom I’d had conflict – one-by-one passed through my thoughts. And as each new face appeared I mentally wrapped love and joy around my thoughts of that person. The playful, irrepressible joy of that song, and Krauss’s performance of it, simply could not be overthrown or trampled down. Anger and frustration had no choice but to melt away before the happy onslaught of banjos and love.

It was a transforming experience for me, and when the snow finally stopped falling and the song had ended, I felt like I’d just been privileged to be a part of something magical and wondrous. The feeling of joy still lingers.

Later I thought some more about the song and its words:

“Who knows how long I’ve loved you
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely lifetime?
If you want me to, I will.
I love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart.
And when at last I find you
Your song will fill the air
Sing it loud so I can hear you
Make it easy to be near you
For the things you do, endear you to me
Oh, you know I will, I will”

And it occurred to me that God, Love itself, could sing those words to you and me. How long has God loved us? Forever and ever and for always. She loves us when we’re near Her in our thoughts, and She loves us when we’re not. She loves us when we know Her, and She loves us when we don’t. And we are dear and precious to Her. “I will, I will,” are our Father-Mother God’s words and promise to us. Unconditional, unfailing love is ours to give, and ours to receive.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Originally published in 2012. Now a part of The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Middle Book.

Blue Cosmos (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

Is It Selfish to Feel Joy?

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Is it selfish of me to feel joy
when there are people dying?
Or
is it selfish of me NOT to feel joy
when I’m able
and can share it with those
who need it?
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Grateful to be alive.
Grateful for sunshine through my window.
Grateful for the fragrance of spring.

Field of Daffodils (Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)



Find the Joy Today

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joyful, playful Life
blessings showered upon us
find the joy today
-Karen Molenaar Terrell



Facing Wild Pigs in the Black Forest and Assembling a Side Table

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Two years ago the son
landed in Vienna and called to ask me to pray –
he’d picked up some weird virus along the way.
Two years minus a month ago he wrote to say
he’d just faced wild pigs in the Black Forest,
on a most epic day.
Two years minus two months ago
borders were closing behind him
as he traveled from where they spoke German
to where they spoke Dutch,
and I wished I could touch
him again and worried a mama’s worries.
And now he sits on the floor of our family home,
quietly assembling a side table for the family room.

It’s amazing how much joy I get from watching
my son assemble a side table for the family room.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

The Pressure to Feel Merry

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(Originally published in 2012, but I think it works pretty well in 2021, too.)

It has been a challenging month for a lot of people. Yesterday when I was running around, doing last minute Christmas shopping, I ran into three friends who teared-up when I asked them how they were doing – one had lost a husband not long ago, the second had lost her mom, the third her dad. The husband of a fourth friend is going through medical treatment for cancer. And then there is the tragedy of Newtown, Connecticut. It just might be that some of us are not inclined to feel all jolly-cheery right now. And I’m here to tell you, if you are one of those folks – it is alright. It’s okay to feel whatever it is you’re feeling. There’s no need or reason to judge your feelings, or to try to force them to be what they’re not. That’s just silly.

At Christmas there’s a lot of pressure on people to feel “The Christmas Spirit.” No one wants to be the Christmas Scrooge. I think we all want to share in the spirit of joy and generosity and hope. But pressuring ourselves to be happy, trying to force ourselves to be jolly, is maybe not the best way to get there. Then it becomes a battle, rather than a natural unfolding.

Here’s the good news: There’s no law that says we can’t feel the Christmas spirit on December 26th, or December 27th, or March 1st – we‘re not limited to feeling joy, generosity, and hope on this one day a year. So even if, this year, we just can’t seem to get there on December 25th, we still have the opportunity to feel the spirit whenever or wherever it unfolds for us. And here’s another bit of good news that I’ve discovered in my own adventures with sadness and grief: I have found that it is possible to be happy even when you’re sad. Which. Yeah, I know that sounds kind of weird, doesn’t it? But it’s true!

May joy settle upon you gently, moment by moment – may you catch it in the playful grin on a child’s face, in the uplift that comes from Beethoven’s Joy, in the smell of something good baking in the oven, in the hug from a friend – may you relax and enjoy those moments for what they are, and what they give you. And may any pressure you feel to somehow make those moments bigger, or brighter, or louder, ease and lift from you.

Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book

And there’s a new review for The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book!

Jeff Chase writes:5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is a gem.
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2021
Verified Purchase
It’s my second Christmas with this book, and I think I’m enjoying it more this year, perhaps because it’s already feeling like a tradition. Karen’s stories, poems, and musings are full of warmth, humor, and love. There’s much to relate to here. I find myself recalling my own Christmas stories from years past. This book is a gem, made for relaxing. Enjoy!

Joy to the World!

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There’s this joy in my heart – this sassy sense of unstoppable cheer – that’s risen in me the last couple of days. It’s a joy that doesn’t depend on who wins what football game, or where I am or what I’m doing – a joy that doesn’t depend on everything being “perfect” in my life. It’s a joy I don’t feel guilty feeling. I like this joy. I think I’ll keep it.

Think of all the beauty that’s still left in and around you and be happy!
– Anne Frank

Christmas Peace

Waiting for the Christmas Spirit

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The kitsch and spangles
and baubles and bangles,
And department store Santa,
just really can’ta
Seem to bring me
the spirit of Christmas.

And I’ve been waiting to feel it –
the real Christmas spirit
Hoping it’d come by now.
The stockings are stuffed,
the tree is all buffed,
The cookies are baked
and frosted and fluffed
But there’s still something missing –
a feeling, a tingling
that’s supposed to come every Christmas.

Except…
Maybe that Christmas feeling,
that energy and tingling
Is something I can have every day –
It doesn’t depend on spangles,
or jingly-bell jangles
Or jolly men dressed all in red.
It comes in the sharing
of laughter and caring
And the comfort in words with love said:
To all – Peace! Joy! Hope!
Every moment of every day.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book

Heaven Right Here

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Went for a walk in the moonlight and starlight and immediately felt Moz with me. And a couple of musings passed through my thoughts: I don’t need to die to be with the people I love who have passed beyond my seeing them – because they’re already with me right now; I don’t need to die to have heaven – everything that will bring me joy on the “other side” is with me right here, in this moment. If I can’t find my joy here, I’m not going to find it “there,” either. If I can’t be grateful for now, what makes me think I’m going to be grateful for whatever comes after this?

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
– Luke 17:21

Moonrise
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The World Still Needs…

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(Originally posted on Humoristianity.)

My dear Humoristian hooligans –
When Humoristianity was established in 2007, I founded our one true fallacious faith on these tenets:
1) You must be able to laugh at yourself.
2) You must be able to recognize how ludicrous your beliefs might appear to others.
3) You must want nothing but good for everyone, everywhere in the universe.
4) You must have a natural aversion to meetings, committees, and scheduled events (as we will be having none of those).
5) You must enjoy the humor of… (I’m not going to even bother to name names here – what was true in 2007 isn’t necessarily true in 2021 – but I believe Monty Python might ALWAYS be included on the list.)

The last several years have been testing times for our faith. There have been times when I’ve found it very hard to laugh. There have been times when the ludicrous has seemed more sinister than laughable. There have been times when it felt it would have been inappropriate to ask people to laugh at their beliefs. Life took a very dark turn at some point, and what might have seemed laughable in 2007 didn’t seem so funny ten years later.

But this much HASN’T changed: The world still needs you. The world still needs your caring, kindness, and courage. The world still needs your irrepressible joy and irresistible good will to humankind. May the bullies, bigots, and busybodies be transformed by your good-humored, unruffled peace. May the stodgy, stuffy, and stingy be transformed by your generous hearts. May those inclined to shame, blame, and divide, see a better way in the way you live your lives.

You have the power to do incredible good. You are making the world a better place. Go out there and work your magic!
Karen