Joy

Or, “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower”. - Dylan Thomas

I use the term joy a lot and I wanted to take a second to get clear on how I am defining it. The majority of my thoughts here are inspired by the indomitable Brene Brown whose work I adore. SO. The key is to separate out happiness and joy as they are often used interchangeably but can mean different things. For our purposes, happiness is based on circumstance and etymologically, happy first meant lucky, favoured by fortune or in an advantageous circumstance. Happy. Joy on the other hand, cultivated through attention, vulnerability (the conscious kind) and gratitude is more a state of being than anything related to outside good fortune. The word Joy, predating happy by a good two hundred years, meant a feeling of pleasure and delight, bliss and gladness. You can see how the terms can intersect but are in fact distinct.
Happiness has been commodified, particularly in our late-stage capitalist desperation. As capitalism is not just an economic and political system but a way of perceiving, we ATTAIN happiness, however fleeting. Often times through the use of money. Happiness can be pricey and have no warranty. You CULTIVATE joy. Joy is free. But joy also requires the use of many other skills. Patience. Attention. Mindfulness. Conviction and discipline. Joy is like growing a vegetable or flower. Happiness is like buying a vegetable or flower. And as a favourite teacher of mine Pat Berry once said “There are far more interesting things to do than be happy.”
So I say Joy. I want to help people cultivate Joy.
Because the world is strange and full of horrors and tragedies. But the world is ALSO magical, wondrous and full of a generative capacity. “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower” to my mind, would have to carry some kind of joy with it. Joy can have a fierceness to it. A drive, a perspective. And to me a well lived life is one where we can see (and feel) the horror clearly and honestly while responding with a strong core - a green fuse perhaps - that carries with it some necessarily generative, luscious, fierce Joy.