Joy

On various blogs before Yule and around the new year I've seen people chose a word for the year and on other blogs talk of a positivity pot to record good things throughout the year and the idea is that at the end of the year when you empty the pot you see all the good things that happened.

The ideas sat there obviously stewing in my head and about 2 weeks ago when settling down to sleep the word JOY turned up in my head.
Next morning the word was still there and the pot had joined it so what could I do but listen?

My idea is to try and see or have some joy in my life each day. Joy doesn't have to be massive, tiny things can bring as much joy as large events. I think the idea is an awareness which coincidentally also  harps back to some of my previous posts about how much of our day to day life is lived mechanically and by habit rather than with awareness.

Many moons ago I used to make abundance pots for people. Handmade and hand dyed felt with certain things inside. This pot idea strikes me a lot of being similar. An abundance of Joy.

I think also that if I put slips of paper in with the joyous happening then on very bad days I can close my eyes, dip in and relive a joyous moment. I am sure that will help lift the day.
I haven't worked out the logistics  at the moment. I am going to put on the slip of paper what the joyous thing was but no dates or such. Just something like 'saw the first lambs' (last week)

It strikes me that it is very much a journal but in individual slips of paper rather than a book. I do still have an art journal and in fact starting this blog post inspired me to do a couple of pages. I also pulled out an old journal page that made me smile.

I think sometimes we forget the small joys when something negative comes to the fore.

It is snowing here but not sticking, massive snowflakes that spiral down in front of the window then disappear into thin air.

Joy and paradoxical commandments

BW posted an interesting item this morning :The Paradoxical Commandments by Kent Keith. I thought them rather appropriate bearing in mind the elections today and I thought I'd post them also.

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

With all the talk of expenses claimed by our worthy? MPs, perhaps they should read and follow this? If I hadn't already voted when I read it I'd have printed a few off to take to the polling station.
Do you think it would have done any good? No me neither.

So onto the other part of the title JOY
Such a small word but so much encompassed within those 3 letters.
How do you find Joy? What makes you joyous?

For me the little things can give me so much joy, appropriate really when the word is also little.

The smell of fresh cut grass, the smell of the roses next to the garden seat.
The sound of stripey bees gathering the pollen from my garden plants.
The taste of freshly ground and brewed coffee.
Finishing a femme and not wanting to let her go because she feels so right.
Watching the sun set over the sea, all the colours in the sky.
reading a good book.
A day with no painkillers.
Cats
colour
friends
knitting shawlsThis doesn't take count of the obvious such as people you love, places you like visiting
But I think you get the point:)

Joy is all around us if we care to see it.

Intensity,joy and more

With thanks to J Ruth Gendlers book of qualities my page today was Intensity, a shortish excerpt follows.

Intensity's shirts are burgundy and deep brown and indigo. It is easy for him to forget about the paler tones. Sometimes he seems to live as if the moon were always full, yet he knows her dark side well. He is very sensitive and when he was younger he worried about getting too close to people and driving them away. His family told him not to feel things so much and not to try to change the world. Trying to follow their advice he was sick and cynical. When he was scared to be himself he was scary to be around. He is healthier now.
Intensity is a splendid actor. He pulls each part out of himself. He has tried on many roles in his attempt to discover who he is and why we suffer.
When he is calm I am reminded of deep water on a quiet night.

There is more but this spoke to me today. A lot of what I was and what I tried to be, most of which was down to how I was made to feel in the past. Both from parents and from previous husband.
I hope I am not as intense, although Mr Mog said this morning when I showed him the page that I was very intense about how he was washing his cup:)
We met up with friends today, one who has just opened a new shop to keep her and her family. We have known her for years and it is always a pleasure to visit. She has such joy in life and lives each day to its fullest. She never gives up and is always busy yet never too busy for friends.
Then from this new shop we caught up with another friend we hadn't seen for around a year. She had been walking by,saw the shop and called in. She asked for our number and when we spoke invited us for lunch. She too works hard for her daughter and is also a foster parent for children with serious problems. Despite all the stress this causes she is also one who lives life as it is meant to be lived, with joy and an open heart for what the day can bring.
I find it very inspiring to be around people like this, no expectations from you or from the world. Just a need to live each day to its utmost. I try to do this and I know myself how difficult it can sometimes be.
They give me hope.

A poem I stumbled across in my journal this morning seemed to go with what I've written above
It is called Joy and is by Carl Sandburg

JOY

LET a joy keep you.
Reach out your hands
And take it when it runs by,
As the Apache dancer
Clutches his woman.
I have seen them
Live long and laugh loud,
Sent on singing, singing,
Smashed to the heart
Under the ribs
With a terrible love.
Joy always,
Joy everywhere--
Let joy kill you!
Keep away from the little deaths.

Joy

I have a book by J Ruth Gendler, the book of qualities. A delightful book and I've owned it for quite a few years now. I used to open it each morning at a random page and read the quality that was there. I stopped for a long while. Maybe I didn't need it at the time?
This morning I found the book again while searching for a bird book. I thought I'd start the morning readings again and as there was a marker in the book I decided that was the first reading. I give you:-

JOY.

Joy drinks pure water. She has sat with the dying and attended many births. She denies nothing. She is in love with life,all of it, the sun and the rain and the rainbow. She rides horses at Half Moon Bay under the October moon. She climbs mountains. She sings in the hills. She jumps from hot spring to the cold stream without hesitation.
Although Joy is spontaneous, she is extremely patient. She does not need to rush. She knows that there are obstacles on every path and that every moment is the perfect moment. She is not concerned with success or failure or how to make things permanent.
At times Joy is elusive - she seems to disappear even as we approach her. I see her standing on a ridge covered with oak trees and suddenly the distance between is feels enormous. I am overwhelmed and wonder if the effort to reach her is worth it. Yet, she waits for us. Her desire to walk with us is as great as our longing to accompany her.
Why did this seem appropriate today? It mentions half moon bay and there is one just down the coast from us. A message for me it seems:) The figure above is one I decorated for Ostara a few years back. Hope you like her.


This was a doll I did for a black and white doll swap a few years back and I thought she represented well the balance I strive for.
This seascape was done with my hand dyed fabrics and threads. I love the peace of it.
I do recommend the book of qualities. It is such a whimsical, thought provoking book.