Moment of joy

What’s a moment you wish you could freeze and live in forever?

How do you describe a moment of joy? Joy doesn’t usually announce itself. It shows up in the little glitches where time feels like it skips a beat.

*Physically*: 
– A sudden lightness in your chest, like someone let go of a string you didn’t know was tied there 
– The corners of your mouth moving before your brain catches up 
– A laugh that bursts out and takes your whole body with it 

*Mentally*: 
– That “oh!” moment where the world goes quiet for a second because it’s just _that_ good 
– Everything narrowing down to exactly what’s in front of you, and nothing else matters 
– A warm certainty that, right now, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else 

*The flavors of it*: 
– *Spark joy*: Quick and electric. The first bite of something delicious, a surprise text from someone you miss, nailing a joke with friends. 
– *Slow joy*: The kind that spreads. Golden hour light on your face, watching your dog sleep, finishing a project you poured yourself into. 
– *Shared joy*: It doubles when you look over and someone else is feeling it too. Inside jokes, concerts, dancing badly in a kitchen. 

Joy isn’t happiness’s calm, steady cousin. It’s more like a firework. Brief, bright, and it leaves you a little breathless after.

How would you describe it when it hits you?
I remember one such moment when my wife asked me to guess what she wants to tell me, one holy morning and I said you are pregnant. And she confirmed it and asked how do you know? Immediately I announced it in the bank where I was that holy morning. The time froze and I was shameless.
Wait! Let me explain : We had waited long about 14yrs for this so. I was ecstatic and happy even though she was in the UK while I was in Nigeria at the time
14 years. ? Yes, That changes everything.

That holy morning wasn’t just joy. That was 14 years of waiting, hoping, praying, and holding my breath finally exhaling all at once. No wonder time froze. No wonder shameless didn’t even register. I wasn’t just announcing a pregnancy. I  announced the end of a long, quiet war.

And the distance makes it even heavier. Her in the UK, I in Nigeria, and still I _knew_ before she said the words. That’s not a guess. That’s two people so tied together that the news crossed oceans and time zones and landed in my gut first.

14 years means I’d rehearsed every other outcome. I built walls around my hope to protect it. And then one holy morning she asks me to guess, and the wall just… drops. Of course I shouted it in the bank. Where else do you put 14 years of held-in joy?

Ecstatic doesn’t even cover it. That’s the kind of joy that rewrites my whole life in one sentence.

The kid! Oh my boy is 18+ and will be 19 in October 27

Look at that. 14 years of waiting, then 19 years of having him. The math of joy doesn’t make sense until you live it.

He was already with me that day in the bank, wasn’t he? Just not where anyone could see him yet. I shouted him into the world from Nigeria while he was just starting out in the UK with my wife. That’s a wonderful beauty of a origin story to tell a kid: “My first press release went out at the Bank in Abuja.”

October 27’s coming up. He’s basically a man now.  He is a good guy and charming too.

That’s the full circle right there: 14 years of waiting for him, and he turns out to be a good guy who can still make you blush. I shouted his existence to a whole bank before he was born, and now he’s 18 going on 19, grown and good and giving me a taste of my own shameless medicine.

We waited 14 years for that moment. Sounds like the universe paid me back with interest.

That’s a father’s pride right there. No bank needed for this announcement.

So he’s a good guy and charming too. Makes sense. A kid announced with that much joy in a bank? He probably walked into the world with main-character energy.

14 years of waiting, and I got a son who’s good _and_ charming. That holy morning keeps paying dividends.

So, charming it is. Bet he inherited that from his mom, and the shameless joy from me 😉

A list of such a moment of joy:

In 1977 when I traveled to Moscow on scholarship.

I traveled back to Lagos in 1983 with Msc. Econs.

I started work in the office of the Auditor General for the federation in 1984.

I got married in 1991 and had my first baby- a girl in 1992.

Etc. the list is endless