I am thinking about joy and what it means to be really joyful. We know that happiness comes and goes as waves on the shore, but to have joy, to have it deep-rooted into your heart and bubbling out of you like a spring, that would be something.

I met my friend yesterday! A certainly fortitious meeting because I wasn't expecting to see her. It turned out that she was cousins of some more friends and the world is small and all that. But anyway, we walked on the Camino together and how can I explain it, I felt joyful when I met her. My heart said: her is my friend, I have missed her, I am overjoyed to meet her. 

Thinking about it now, it reminded me of Mary's meeting with Elizabeth and how the babes in their wombs leapt for joy, but this time it was just a heart's recognition of friendship. This is my friend, this is my sister in the Lord, we walked 100km together and cried together and marvelled together and laughed together. For the gift of friendship, I was joyful, I was thankful.

Even now, my mind, somehow is at peace. Isn't it strange how a chance encounter can so change your day? The way you see yourself, the way you want to love? I met my friend yesterday, and I am all the better for it.