Like most, or at least many, bloggers, my general feeling when I think about my blog is that I should create more content. Which makes me wonder.. why don’t I write more? Sure, I’m busy, but that’s not really it. I mean, heaven knows I spend enough time THINKING the thoughts, I may as well write them down.
As I write this, for example, it is the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada, and we are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even for a dyed-in-the-wool introvert like yours truly, it is a strange time. Our family’s economic status, including jobs that were either already remote (mine) or readily transitioned to being so (Himself’s) protected us from everything but mild inconvenience. Sure, the kids weren’t happy about being out of school and having their ENTIRE LIVES (aka cheer and dance) cancelled. The constant sense of being in purgatory and unable to adequately plan wasn’t…great for my generalized anxiety. We muddled (and are still muddling) through.
And yet even knowing we are blessed beyond measure (for so many others, this is not the case), I don’t know that I would have predicted that the primary topic on my mind right now would be joy.
It’s been a weird couple of years, dear reader. Probably I’ll get more into that as we go along, but for today’s purposes, the most important thing is that it wasn’t very joyful.
But it should have been.
I have no great traumas to report, no massive tragedies (or even little ones). On the contrary, I have a happy marriage, two healthy kids, a pastoral dream of a place to live and a growing relationship with God. While my career path hasn’t always been smooth (is it for anyone?) I’ve done interesting things at interesting jobs. So what’s the problem, princess?
I’m actually really interested in the answer to that question, so let’s phrase it with a little less salt: What is the root cause of joy?
Too often the following happens when that question gets asked, at least in my humble opinion:
- A series of platitudes are offered about positive thinking and/or God (count it all joy OR ELSE) and/or some other universal power which may or may not be planning everything anyway.
- It is suggested that some product or series of products fills this role.
- Sometimes both! I think this might be why I have two different yoga blocks.
It’s not necessarily that these things are bad – but I don’t think the story stops there. So I think I’m going to hang around this theme a while. Content-wise, I’ll keep posting my book reports, mind maps and other lab book stuff but the underlying true north here on the Farm for the next year or so will be a study of joy. And we’ll just see where that takes us.
Thank you for reading,
A