The best thing about looking for the little joys and really trying to appreciate them is they are bountiful. Unlike big joys, the little moments of happiness are all around us, whether it be in nature or in another person or a book. They are little pick me ups during the day, and sometimes we don’t even know they are happening until the moment passes. Everything is so fleeting and it’s exhausting trying to grab on to a million separate emotions, to recognize happy instances, to savor your feelings of joy and happiness and what brought them.
When I write this column, the first thing I do is go through my camera roll for the week to see what I took pictures of and what my week entailed. Mostly it’s pictures of my cats and pictures of food and so many pictures of my “now playing” record holder with the album du jour in it (I post them on twitter) and hardly any pictures of the things that brought me joy. Did I experience that at all this week? And then I go back through the days and beg my memory to work for a change. What did I do this week? Where did I go? Who did I see? What did I read? I don’t remember.
When I started Week in Joy, I was really paying attention to what transpired in my periphery during the day. I was soaking up those joys. Looking at nature, listening to a good, new-to-me record, talking to a friend, I recognized it all when it happened and made sure I leaned it into it.
Somewhere along the line I started taking the little joys for granted again. I stopped paying full attention. I had to scour my twitter timeline to figure out what I did during the week, what made me happy. I slipped. I had reached a good place where I was practicing mindfulness all the time, and now I was back to zooming through my days without taking time to notice anything.
Here we are at Week in Joy number whatever, and I’m struggling to come up with anything. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have a good week; I went to a dinner party where I watched the sun set on the Atlantic Ocean, I talked to an old friend, I made some headway on a house project, the Yankees look good again. But I didn’t stop and appreciate these things, I just zoomed on to the next. So I’m taking a step back, exhaling, and staring back at the beginning, where I first taught myself how to be appreciative, how to take stock of joys, how to recognize those little moments for what they are.
So I am turning the week in joy over to you this week.
After this long ass introduction I am simply asking you: what brought you joy last week? What are you looking forward to? Do you make the time in your life to appreciate the little things that happen in the here and now? I would love to see your answers on this and get a little discussion going.
Go ahead and click that button and share your joys with me, and all of us. We could use it.
We saw Deadpool and Wolverine for a second time this week. We also saw a friend's band play at a bar here in Austin. It was a lot of fun and I like when Ali comes to shows with me.
I booked a little vacation for myself in October! So now I have that to look forward to! 😁