Liz from Letting Me Be tagged me, happily, with this SEARCH FOR JOY tag, who caught the bug from Melly from All Kinds of Writing. What a yummy idea! Beware, it’s quite infectious! And such joyous homework to do! Thank you both, from here to Timbuktu.
My search came up with a bundle of joy, my little babbling brook always seeking, if not always finding, that easy overflow of happiness. At present I feel joy at being asked to do this. I feel joy at having friends (blog and flesh) who forgive me my neuroses and love me anyway, joy at still being able to tell my mother and father and sister how much I love them.
Joy comes gushing from me at inopportune moments, in the middle of a performance of Mahler 4th, for example. (see Mahler and Bob) Or it pops out of me when I’m listening to a friend tell me of his day, and I realize how suddenly happy I am to be this friend. (of course, he thinks I’m not listening to him, which may be true, but hey, joy is like a sneeze for me!)
The joy which pops up in my words here takes varied forms. In Ephemeral Joy, I wonder: Is there any other kind? What kind of joy can you bottle? Except maybe wine.
A favorite spiritual poem, The Drummer finds someone searching for the internal/external rhythms of life, and finds ” fear giving breath to joy.”
Inlaid Wooden Pew tries to imagine the lives and emotions of ancient stories, crystallized in the beauty of an ornate church pew.
Babbling Drops sees joy in the wiggling of new oak leaves under a drizzling rain.
And, more recently, Mahler explains to Bob the Demon how joys and sorrows are the grist for our lives, and that one is never far from the other.
I’d like to pass this torch to Whirling Betty whom I know will find joy to post, even if it’s not yet on her blog; to Dantallion, Jessamyn of Theriomorph, Daisy Winifred from Animated Stardust, GEL of Silken Threads, and Erin of Poetic Acceptance. (I like to add a sub, in case someone is unable to participate)
Here’s what to do:
THE SEARCH FOR JOy
Search your blog for the word “joy” used in the context of “happiness”. If you cannot find the word in your weblog, you may use any of the select list of synonyms below.joy- amusement, bliss, cheer, comfort, delectation, delight, ecstasy, elation, exaltation, exultation, exulting, felicity, gaiety, gladness, glee, good humor, gratification, happiness, hilarity, humor, jubilance, liveliness, merriment, mirth, pleasure, rapture, regalement, rejoicing, revelry, satisfaction, wonderIf your weblog does not include a built-in search engine, then you can use Google to search it only for the word you wish to find.If you’ve found the word and it was not used facetiously or sarcastically, good for you. All you need to do is link to your earlier entry, and write a few words about that joyous moment. If, however, you have no joy (whole words only) in your weblog, you must dig deep in your soul and find something wonderful in your life right now. One little thing that fills you with warmth, that bubbles you over with quiet happiness, or tickles you with its good-hearted hilarity, or makes you glad you just took a breath, and are getting ready to take another. It doesn’t have to be anything big. A smile someone gave you; your cat on your shoulder; the way the light angles through your window and casts rainbows on your floor. All it has to be is something genuine, something real, something that matters to you.Because we all need joy in our lives, and need to take the time — from time to time– to recognize it. And sometimes, we need to pass it on.Even if we’re a big pain in the ass when we do.When you’ve dealt with your own joy, pass the quest on to five other bloggers.
Technorati tags- joy, blog tags, spreading joy, happiness
Oh G-
You not only found joy, you are joy. You bring joy. It’s a joy to be with you.
I’m delighted that you got from this experience the same kind of feeling tha I did. It put me back into appreciating how much there is in my life to feel and experience with joy.
I knew that you would not have backed off that word and had to go looking for lesser synonyms, such as happiness. You so live your life and feel it to the fullest.
I am so joyful and joyous that you are my friend.
love,
your L
Thanks, Liz-Do you think people are starting to talk, seeing us meet alone like this so often?
uh oh, too much joy to pick from…used the Google search and got two pages of examples back! Will select. 🙂
love, J
Glad you’re ‘joy’ning in, Jess.
haha, I’m sifting through joyousness myself, for this meme… I’ll give it a go later 🙂
Well G- It seems that those two didn’t notice. So I guess our secret’s safe so far. -L
Thank you Garnet for thinking of me. I’m not fast enough to keep up with meme’s usually but this certainly is one for the thought buds to bloom from.
It seems that I have posted 484 times since I started the blog and when I put the word joy in the search feature that Typepad offers it came up with 350 entries starting with the first in August 2003 titled Heat. I found it interesting that the search engine seems to have picked up on the nuance of my writing not just the specific word as for the life of me I can’t find the word joy in this first post or in many of the others I quickly looked at.
Here’s that first post –
“Being someone who was born and lives in the Northern Hemisphere and the north of that to boot, temperature is one of those words that is rarely used when referring to hot weather but all things change :0) So rising at 5.30am as normal I found on reading the temperature gauge, fixed to the outside of my home, that it’s already edging towards 70 degrees F. This is a gift for me as it means not only that I can sit outside first thing and enjoy the waking sounds and smells of the day fully but I get to leave the sweater off. Of course it’s also a gift because I have plenty of clean cool drinking water available, good sanitation and a safe place to sit quietly early in the morning.
This morning as I watched a pair of bull-finches busily devouring the new contents of one of my birdtables I felt not only very fortunate but mightily sad for the many who would not be welcoming a warm beginning of the day with gentle reflection and embracing of the light in all sense of that word.
Even many of those who are as fortunate as myself with roof over their heads, food in their belly and clean water / sanitation to hand will awaken with little sense of being fortunate, little sense that they are rich or blessed just by the fact that they are alive.
If that is the case then few will be giving thanks for the air, water, the very Earth they travel upon or for the moment.
My small endeavour from the very first eye opening moment is to be aware and awake to the gift that each new day brings and is one way to honour my part in the Whole. My responsibility and honour is to spend the first few hours of each day listening and responding with my heart as well as my mind. To centre my heart and mind and offer myself to the day and ask the day to enable me to be my true self.
I use ‘visual aids’ to prompt and guide my thinking, a prayer counter I designed myself and prayers I have written to use with the beads. This is also the time I consider the word for the day and scribble my thoughts down. This is an ongoing and continuous process and ‘ritual’ that I follow. Not because of outside direction or obedience to an authority but because my heart and mind reach towards something Unfathomable and I find my reaching with intent and discipline not only gives me a positive sense of purpose but constantly tops up the core of strength and peace I find within when I am silent, listening and open.”
Maybe joy is not so much a word to use but to endeavour to live, to breath and to become; that I suspect is what I’ve been trying to do for the last fifty years and maybe will have made the first step by my last breath:0)
I will invite anyone reading my weBlog to come over here and read the thread and consider joy in their writing but more so maybe in their living and being. Considering what flow has been powering my weBlog turns out to be a gift, thank you for encouraging me to consider.
Just because I didn’t MENTION it, doesn’t mean I didn’t NOTICE it… I wouldn’t want to make a man uncomfortable by, you know, staring or, worse, pointing and giggling. . . or anything
Erin- What, is there hair gel on my ear?
brocolli in your teeth dear 😉
Oh, that’s a real catastrophe! Quick, draw their attention away, divert the cameras, while I use my handy dandy pocket water pick…
lmao
Quick! Everyone look over there! It’s that actor from LOST!
Where, you meand Josh Holloway! I’ve always wanted to meet him. Wait a minute, he looks a lot like me! Hey, do you you have two spare C batteries? This thing’s lost its juice.
no no not Josh Holloway, (but Sawyer IS a hottie eh!?) Michelle Rodriguez! And um, sorry, but the only C’s I’ve got are in my ‘water pick’ silly! Seeing Michelle made me feel like I might have brocolli in my teeth too! 😉
I think it’s gonna be a long night! Goodnight, Michelle, sleep tight. Big hug, Josh.
Hey, what a fantastically joyful post.
It gave me a chance to go back to some of your post.
Thanks 🙂
Melly, thanks for visiting. Yes, as Erin pointed out above, I forgot to draw the shades when picking some of the verbs! Glad you checked out the links to the joyous posts.
Thank you for thinking of me, Garnet, but I had no idea I was tagged since I received no notice from you and I can’t visit everyone’s blog everday. Next time, please drop me an email; I’d love to participate if I can!
This sounds fun. I will enjoy reading those who particpated later, because I must return to work. Take care