Interesting to think about the diff. if any between joy and happiness. Reading over Jerry's initial post the first thing that came to mind was what I felt when I brought one of our 7-wk old corgi puppies back to life. Sufficated by a falling chair, a case of being in wrong place at the wrong time, he was totally limp when I rescued him, not breathing, no heartbeat. I was frantic, couldn't believe how swiftly his little life had been snuffed out.

I blew into his mouth, pressed his chest, blew again, and again...feeling more and more hopeless. The moment I felt a spark return to his body, even before he began breathing again, I experienced an icredible flood of joy...like being bathed in a brilliant light. Quite a different thing than the joyous happiness I feel every morning, looking out on my rural 5 acres, or the exciting thrill of making music, good friends and conversation, all the grand things in life. Not better, necessarily, just different.

The puppy recovered completely. By the next day he was fine and a couple of weeks later went off to a good home. His owner still sends Mikey, the puppy we kept from that litter, a b'day card every year. That makes me happy!