Joy’s smile is much closer to tears than laughter.

The deepest gladness does not feel like amusement. When something matters enough, the feeling that arrives has weight in it, and the body answers the way it answers loss: a tightening in the throat, water in the eyes. That is not sadness leaking into a good moment. It is the sign that you are close to something you care about losing.

If your eyes sting at a wedding, a homecoming, an ordinary evening that suddenly feels finite, let it happen. Those moments are a fairly reliable map of what you actually love.