This is why she has joy:

Because God saw fit to stock this world with a surplus of delights even though He's already swamped with getting heaven ready for us. Here are some of the things that remind me that our God is good (not as in He does pretty nice things and generally behaves Himself, I'm referring to the fact that He and 'good' are synonymous).

I like huddling different kinds of produce around a big cutting board, sharpening my knife and one by one processing the fruits and vegetables. Tomato skins yield under the serrated blade of my knife and its acidic juices bleed out and sting where I have hangnails. Avocados, also technically a fruit, are halved and pitted and heal my skin with its rich buttery pulp. Peeling onions, quartering strawberries, seeding peppers, scalding peaches, chopping cilantro, shaving carrots, skinning potatos... I deposit each chopped-up fruit and vegetable in its own bowl and I survey the array of smells, colors, even tastes either wafted up through their pungent aromas or recalled by memory.

Warmth. Everything about this word is comforting to me, it conjures up images of: Fluffy towels just out of the dryer, sunlight seeping into your pores, butter melting on a hot piece of toast, a heartfelt embrace, an aromatic cup of steaming coffee and having just finished writing a paper and collecting each sheet hot out of the printer with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Touch. Tracing someone's veins, sustaining life just under the surface of his skin, and lightly following their paths with your finger as you would a road map. Holding the hand of an old woman and feeling the paper thinness of her skin which is, metaphorically speaking, thicker than a rhino's. Petting a middle-aged man's arm befitting of Esau, smoothing the thick, unruly hair so that it all lays in the same direction. Kneading a friend's muscles as she discloses her latest woes to you and feeling the stress leave her voice tight from tears as well as her body as knots give way. Being close enough to feel body heat coming off of him and inhale the myriad of scents only he gives off and, finally, closing the gap between the two of you with a touch that is prude by the world's standards yet infinitely intimate to the two of you.