Finding Joy

I suppose it isn’t that surprising, but joy is a truly wonderful thing. You can probably guess this simply by virtue of the definition of joy. 😊

Finding joy is something I’ve tried hard to do over the past several years. But not just finding it, also, noticing it. Sometimes joy is a very big thing that hits you full in the face, that you can’t ignore, that your whole body responds to, when you feel your eyes light up and your shoulders relax and you bounce a little bit or hop from foot to foot and you smile and you giggle and you laugh out loud. And other times, it can flitter past almost below perception.

Seeking out joy and finding it and revelling in it is, of course, much easier when you know what it is. So I guess the first thing is to notice it.

Joy can take different forms for different people and at different times. Here are just a few of the things that bring me joy (I can tell, my lips start to tingle very slightly as the smile starts to form).

• That first mouthful of tea at the right temperature as it hits the back of my throat and the warmth spreads through me.
• Washing my hands in cold water on a really hot day and feeling the refreshing coolness on the insides of my wrists.
• Watching a butterfly open its wings, display its beautiful colours and then float off to find a flower.
• Hearing the first few bars of an awesome Samba track and making eye contact with one of my favourite Samba partners and then running across the dancefloor towards each other.
• Seeing one of my dance students who had been massively struggling with the footwork and timing of the Cha Cha basic get two bars in row correct. And the smile on their face when they notice that I noticed.
• That deep exhalation as I settle comfortably into the first paragraph of rereading Anathem by Neal Stephenson and knowing I have the whole book ahead of me, again!
• Hearing Hadley Fraser sing.
• Hearing the smile in a friend’s voice over a WhatsApp call across continents.
• That in joke between friends in a text that makes me involuntarily laugh out loud. Shoulders!
• A hug.
• Sunrise.
• The mountains in Nepal.
• The avocados in Rwanda.
• The sound of the kotthu makers in Sri Lanka.
• Watching the countryside roll past a train window (even if it is the dull, flat, boringness of East Anglia).
• Hearing someone with a Scottish accent call me pal.
• Listening to one of my friends speak to someone in a language I don’t understand (and I don’t care what anyone says, I think Danish sounds beautifully musical, not at all like talking with a potato in the throat).
• Watching the intense concentration on the face of the trainee barista as she puts the most gorgeous chocolate sauce decorations on the whipped cream on my blended iced mocha and then giving her the biggest smile in the world to acknowledge the beauty of what she has just done and seeing the pride and the appreciation and the shared joy in her eyes.
• A hot shower.
• Walking on thick carpet in bare feet.
• Changing roles during a Viennese Waltz.
• Secretly splashing in a puddle while walking through the miserable British late afternoon winter gloom.
• Watching one of my dance students in a competition living their absolute best life out on the dance floor.
• A familiar face in a crowd of strangers.
• Successfully leading a back lock and running finish in Quickstep with a partner who isn’t sure if they’ve done it before. Following a fishtail without a verbal cue, or two double reverse spins in a row!
• Finally figuring out the right syntax for the Python code I’d been wrestling with.
• Waking up, checking the time, rolling over and going back to sleep because it’s still ages before I need to actually get up.
• Snuggling up on the sofa under a blanket with a friend or two to watch an interesting movie.
• Doing a favour for a friend.
• Richard Windsor and Dominic North as the Swan and Prince in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake.

This list is already longer than I thought it would be when I started writing and it will just get longer if I let it. But you get the picture. Some of you will agree with some of the things on this list. Others will be annoyed by the lack of cheese (which is a good point, cheese should definitely be on there somewhere – a terrible oversight).

Your joy may not be the same as mine. You might not have Nepali mountains and forests and blue sky close at hand. But whatever joy you do have, please take a moment to notice it. Close your eyes. Breathe it in. Revel in it. Wrap yourself up in it. Smile. And carry on with your day.

And after you’ve been noticing it for a while, start to seek it out. Create it in your life. Create it in the lives of others too.

It is a very renewable resource!

Now, where is that kettle? I think it’s time for tea!