The Currency of Joy

We often mistake wealth for the weight of things held in our hands—the heavy coins, the polished silver, the harvest gathered into barns. But there is a different kind of currency, one that does not tarnish in the humidity or wither when the rains arrive. It is the sudden, unbidden bloom of a smile that rises from the soil of a difficult day. It is a light that does not need a lamp to exist, a warmth that persists even when the sky is bruised with clouds. To witness such a thing is to realize that the most valuable treasures are those that cannot be locked away or measured by the scale. They are the quiet, defiant sparks of grace found in the middle of a crowded path, blooming like wildflowers in the cracks of a stone floor. When the world demands our exhaustion, what is it that allows us to offer a smile instead?

Shahnaz Parvin has captured this exact grace in her beautiful image titled Her Beautified Smile. Does this face not remind you that joy is the only thing that grows more abundant the more we give it away?