When life becomes stressful, we can overlook everyday pleasures. Because of a recent and ongoing difficult situation for me, I’m motivated to actively discover and cultivate a sense of joy. It’s the best antidote I know to prevent bitterness or despair. When it seems circumstances might suck all gladness from my heart, I become more deeply committed to guarding my joys. But first, I need to be reminded what they are.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been compiling a list of things that bring me joy. I jot a few in my journal each morning. I put a list on my phone. I take notice of natural elements in the landscape when I walk in the wooded park trail to scribble down when I get home. The act of intentionally looking for joy is itself uplifting. When I do, I realize how full my life is. Here are a few of the items on my list. Maybe you can relate to some of them.
1. A child’s laughter. Nothing lifts my spirits like the sound of an innocent child delighted with the world. I don’t understand the neighborhoods deliberately designed to exclude children from their environment. The excited shrieks of young people playing soccer or paddling in the pool beyond our back fence makes me smile.
2. Acts of service for someone else. Reading books with a second grader at a nearby school lets me share the love of reading with a child who struggles to keep up with their peers. Slapping sliced turkey and sliced cheese on two pieces of white bread and filling bins with water, socks, and cookies to later pass out from a food truck that serves the homeless population in Austin. Their gratitude for my meager efforts is humbling.
3. Sharing a meal with people I love. Sometimes this means family, sometimes not. Sharing stories over a nourishing meal invigorates me and helps connect to other people. The food and the stories aren’t consequential, but the relationships are. A meal is just a good excuse to be together.
4. Surprises along the mulched trail that leads to and through the regional park near our home. Clumps of antelope horn milkweed that will host Monarch caterpillars during their migration through Central Texas. A family of deer grazing at the edge of the woods; the doe eyes me carefully while her fawns scatter back into the trees, before she also disappears. The rabbit that hops across the trail to safety in the tangled brush as I approach.
5. Listening to music that stirs my soul. Like Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” It doesn’t have to be classical, though. A good James Taylor ballad will do. The hymn “Here I Am, Lord” sung with my church family. Even a 60s hard rock tune can erase worries and take me back to simpler times and memories of people important to me.
6. A good book that moves me with beautiful language or characters and situations that provoke me. The books I enjoy most are those that let me see the world through different eyes, that describe the human condition in terms I’d never considered before. Sometimes a story well-told about a life like my own can simply reassure me I’m not alone.
7. The new growth of Spring. After the dead of winter, and after a few rains and warmer weather, my garden gradually comes to life. First comes the vibrant purple verbena that stand out against the grayed and brown stumps and stalks from last year. Soon, the rock rose and althea put on leaves. The bright green foliage of Greg’s Blue Mist and passion vine pop up…everywhere. They’ll tempt the butterflies who soon flit about, lay eggs, and feed. Anticipation of their arrival makes my heart flutter.
8. Bella and Ollie. Our dog and cat demand attention from the time they awaken me before 5:00 AM each morning until we all settle down sometime around 10:00 PM every evening. Bella needs walks—two a day. Ollie flops at our feet with the flair of a drama queen (king?)—near, but just out of reach—and invites strokes. Between their twice-a-day meals and umpteen-a-day ins and outs through the back door, we’re kept on our toes serving their needs. But oh, what joy they bring to our lives!
My list of joys is much longer than this, but I won’t bore you with them all. I recognize how fortunate I am to have so many to list and want to savor each one. What about you? What are your joys? Maybe you need to start a list, too, or maybe you already have one. If so, please share something from it. Maybe you’ll remind me of something that should be on mine.
Janice Airhart 