There is a distinction between happiness and joy. The first known use of the word joy happened in the 13th century. The century the Black Plague arrived in the world. Merriam-Webster’s prime definition of joy is the emotion evoked by well-being, success or good fortune. So, how can it be that when one has good fortune, good health, good prospects, they can lack joy. Further, they can fundamentally lose the capacity to enjoy things, unable to attain felicity and delight in even the smallest of things?
This is the core of why I started writing on this blog; I needed to remind myself of the joy and wonderment and awe in the world, that there is delight and spectacle in the minute. All I had to do was pause and look, listen and receive. My favorite Catholic hymn has a chorus – taste and see the goodness of the Lord. And I made an intentional practice of rejoicing in the goodness of the world. By goodness, I mean beauty (not morality).
And I have surrounded myself with many, many things that call me to rejoice in the wonder of it all. I garden. I grow food and flowers and trees. I sprout future loquat and date trees from the seeds I pluck out of the flesh of the fruit. The knowledge and inherent will of a seed to grow is amazing. I don’t control that. It is buried in the DNA of the seed itself. I am obsessed with Youtube videos from Mossy Earth and Carbon Cowboys and regenerative farming. That when we stop trying to willfully control the land, the land just does it’s thing. Seeds long dormant in the soil regrow, species not seen on the American Prairies for 100 years come back. The System has a will of its own, a design greater and more significant that me. And I rejoice in that. I have the Cornell Ornithology Lab’s app on my phone and when I am gardening, I turn it own and learn the bird sounds and species that I share my land with, that find my 3.55 acre friendly and hospitable. I rejoice! I make sourdough. (disclaimer – so did 20 million other people when the pandemic happened). But I use my sourdough starter every week. I like the self-sufficiency and I love that invisible microbes float in the air around me and have the power to convert ground wheat and water into bread. And it is yummy bread. And long, long ago, a human figured out that they could leavened ground grain and water into a dough and cook it in fire.
How to find joy? It’s not about happiness. Happiness is over-rated and as fleeting at a line of coke. It is an illusion, trickery and deception. It taunts and persuades you to chase it. But joy simply wants you to be still, pause, taste, see, hear and know the goodness of the moment.