We are going to need some joy to stay alive.
The news is disturbing and awful and our bodies and hearts just have to have a break.
Snuggling with people, children, babies and critters is one way to find joy. Touching has always been important for mental and physical health.
If we can’t touch someone physically, then reaching out on the page and sharing our thoughts can bring pleasure. We are not alone. It is important to know that.
Bird song, watching birds at the feeder can bring joy. One sunny day when it was 20 below zero I listened to a chickadee and I thought how glad he sounded. He was not singing to attract a mate so what could it be for if not just for joy. If he could be happy, then why not I?
A bird piped suddenly, and was still; and a light breeze sprang up and set the reeds and bulrushes rustling. Rat, who was in the stern of the boat, while Mole sculled, sat up suddenly and listened with a passionate intentness. Mole, who with gentle strokes was just keeping the boat moving while he scanned the banks with care, looked at him with curiosity.
"It's gone!" sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. "So beautiful and strange and new. Since it was to end so soon, I almost wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a longing in me that is pain, and nothing seems worth while but just to hear that sound once more and go on listening to it for ever. No! There it is again!" he cried, alert once more. Entranced, he was silent for a long space, spellbound.
"Now it passes on and I begin to lose it," he said presently. "O Mole! the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the music and the call must be for us."
The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. "I hear nothing myself," he said, "but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers."
Kenneth Grahame
The Wind in the Willows
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Breathless and transfixed the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run of that glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and possessed him utterly.
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
“They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time their intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls.”
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
“Here and there great branches had been torn away by the sheer weight of the snow, and robins perched and hopped on them in their perky conceited way, just as if they had done it themselves.”
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
There are many beautiful things to see in nature and it is free.
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An American Hymn East of Eden Domingo
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Placido Domingo An American Hymn
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I have seen a summer day
that slowly opens like a rose
along a quiet road that wanders by
And I have smiled and wonder'd
Where it goes
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I have stumbled through the night
Alone as any man can be
Then found a silent canyon full of stars
And in my heart I heard them telling me
I was home
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The gentle winds, the rains that fall
The tallest trees, and I'm part of it all
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I've seen the silver mountain tops
And golden prairies on my way
Now everywhere I go across the land
I stand so proudly in the sun and say
I am home
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I've dreamed of Eden all my life
I find it more and more each day
Now everywhere I go across the land
I stand so proudly in the sun and say
I am home
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Dancing is a joy. Just before I graduated from college, we had a dance. I had to plan and help make the centerpieces for it. Hubby and I were going to be married in July. His mother sewed a dress for me. It had a simple pattern, with a yellow satin top and a brocade skirt. I pressed the parts and then she put them together and sewed them. Like Maria in West Side Story, I felt pretty. I was thin, then, of course.
We danced a simple box step, but when you are young and have energy, you can really make it work and we had a good time. Unfortunately, hubby decided after we were married that he did not dance. But I have a wonderful memory from that night. So the song about dancing below brings me joy.
We can dance around the house, too.
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Let Me Be Your Wings from Thumbelina
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We have to find some joy to fight despair. We can fight pain, we can work to help fix things, but we must not disintegrate. Joy even in small things is the glue…that and friendship. We gain energy from each other, from our stories and from our experiences.
Together.
Please share your moments of joy even if small…especially if small.