“Joy is an expression of the awakened heart, a quality of enlightenment. When we live in the present, joy often arises.”
~ Jack Kornfield
As if you need reminding, we are 14 days away from the mid-term elections. Short of a hermitage (with a nod to Homer friends Joe and Sharon), we have little choice but to endure the firehose of headlines and commentaries fomenting our distrust, disgust, and outright fear of the malicious politics at work in this country and beyond. At no time during the past 100 years have we been as deeply and irreparably divided on every front, politically, economically, or ideologically.
The daily onslaught of political headlines has led me to shun my cell phone and recoil from public radio and online news. I’ve hit overload, and yes, I know that’s their strategy – to “flood the zone” with non-stop accusations and lies, once-unthinkable authoritarian retributions, and ICE brutality until we’re so overstimulated, we retreat into a state of helpless bewilderment.
As a perk of this dissociation, my phone battery lasts longer, and I’ve been reading more books. I came across this recently:
“Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, more beautiful than sorrow. To make this discovery is to embrace joy as a moral obligation.”
~ André Gide, French novelist and philosopher
Deliberately seeking joy is, on the one hand, an act of self-care. When my mood dips, as it does each year when fall succumbs to winter, I make an effort to slow down and savor flashes of joy as they arise, drawing emotional sustenance from these luminous moments.
Of late, I’ve been spending every nice afternoon (and some really stormy ones) outside working on last-minute construction projects. Consequently, I have joyfully eavesdropped on a trio of juvenile Varied Thrush as they try out their vocal cords – whistling off-key notes that break in the middle, like the adolescence they are. And come rain or shine, husband Hal and I take afternoon walkies with our two red dogs, who sprint ahead, and our cat, Musetta, who trails behind. Her every move is accompanied by the jangle of a large, green anti-birding bell she wears. Her plump determination to accompany us, and the cheery clang-bang of her bell, make me smile every time.
We can set up the conditions for a joyful experience, for example, by saving a pleasant task to counter a difficult situation. Recently, after wincing at a larger than expected construction bill, I fled outside to plant tulip bulbs, arranging them by height and color and imagining them aflame with much-needed color come spring. That was premeditated joy, and it helped. Later in the day, driving along Kachemak Drive, I saw a woman at her mailbox. Several feet behind her, a small, silky white dog sat obediently, but with such rapt intensity, a spark of joy flared in my heart. That was spontaneous joy. These moments of joy and awareness offer a respite, like a soothing hand over my frayed nerves.
Joy, on the other hand, can be a deliberately radical political act. Cultivating a collective sense of joy may be the strongest stance we have against the negative barrage of messaging, megaphoned by the media, intended to divide us and strip us of power and agency. Joy is a jubilant social act of resilience against tyranny. With collective joy, we have agency, solidarity, and hope. This joy takes the form of humor, art, music, boisterous No Kings rallies, volunteering, kindness to strangers, and compassion – all those qualities that bring us closer to one another and help us believe in the decency and agency that gave rise to this country we call the United States of America. Joy alone has the power to unite us.
I take heart in the following …
“Over time, the strength of positive thoughts and emotions will gain traction until, eventually, the scales will tip. Positive mental states will be much stronger than negative ones. Once we reach this stage, we will begin to experience joy continuously…. This joy arises because we know we can train our mind in all circumstances. We can train through physical pain, mental upheaval, loss, or gain – any positive or negative situation. In this way, all of life’s experiences are brought onto the path. We have ceased compounding our suffering. We are making our lives ultimately meaningful.”
~ Khentrul Lodrö T’haye from in his book Power of the Mind