Simple Activity

During the service on April 6 entitled, “Surprised by Joy”, we were asked to think about the things that bring us joy.

In that simple activity I found myself doodling about those small moments over the last week where I found myself smiling or breathing a bit easier. 

I noticed what others brought up to the chalice table and smiled over bits and bobs of meaning the beloved community chose to share. 

I doodled a pair of goggles and thought about how much joy I get in the pool propelling  myself from one end to the other over and over again listening to those songs I have picked out specifically for how they speak to me. The first 30 minutes feel like a marathon, the second 30 feel better but still uphill even though the lane and the water and the motion is the same. The cooldown though.. Is everything. 

I doodled music notes and stems and key signatures and thought about how I feel singing with our own covenant choir.  I thought about  rocking the grands while singing all of those simple rhymes and melodies hoping that they will remember their Noni and how she sang to them and with them one day when they no longer fit in the crook of my arms or get too big for Noni’s lap. 

I doodled a tree and a path around it thinking about the walks I take and the books on tape that have healed me and helped me finish so many journeys I didn’t think I would ever see the end of. 

I gave note to other moments that will remain held in the quiet sanctuary of my heart – but ALL of which brought me joy. 

Blessed Be

~ Lydia Patrick

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Practicing Joy Takes Practice

Practicing Joy stumped me for a while. Most of you know by now that I’m usually ready to
expound on just about anything. Something about this one, though, held me up. Maybe it felt a
little too much like Practicing Gratitude. You know what I mean, being thankful for what you
have and pushing down the challenges we face. That’s never worked for me and, I’d wager, it
isn’t good for us. We can be thankful for what we have and recognize that circumstances are
unjust, unreasonable, or that they just suck. We’re obviously not asking anyone to ignore the
hard stuff, so what does the Practice of Joy or Practicing Joy look like?

The first thing that comes to mind for me is practicing music. The connection between a Practice and practicing is a little on the nose, but it really is an intentional effort at self-fulfillment for me. I enjoy the challenge, the feeling of accomplishment, the skill development, and more that comes from individual effort in music. Playing with and for others is a Joy. The shared experience of the performer and listener is evocative of a potentially endless array of emotions. It’s more than just doing what makes me happy, but I believe the intention is what makes it more meaningful.

When you do what brings Joy, do it on purpose. Do it not to take the place of whatever is hard
right now, but because it is worth the effort. It’s not hedonistic; simply recognize that you
deserve joy and allow yourself to experience it. The inertia of melancholy can be hard to
overcome; the first steps should be small. There is goodness, kindness, beauty and more in the
world. It’s good to remember that. It’s good to remember that there is also goodness, kindness,
beauty and joy in you.

~Ian Van Sice

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Falling In Love Again At Hogg Mine

I think I’m the happiest at this moment, right now…

Riding home with my hand out the window as the wind moves my hand up and down. I move closer to the window and let the air catch my sun beaten face. It feels so great. I’m immediately transported to my childhood when we would hang our head out the window to get some cooling air in the hot Texas sun. 

I’m exhausted, my body aches from the activities of the day, I’m pretty sure I have a sunburn and my arms itch as my order for sleeves didn’t come in time to wear today. But I am smiling at the abundance of love I felt and the exhilarating day I had. 

Today T and I went to Hogg Mine in LaGrange, Georgia and we… I mined for rose quartz, beryl and tourmaline. I was more into the quartz, I want to put them around our pond so I looked for large ones and T kindly lifted them and put them in the buckets we had. He gathered a few rocks and pulled the cart in and out of the mining areas and said no to the boulders I wanted to roll up the hill, ever mimicking The Boulder from Avatar. It made me smile even more.

But it’s just so much more than that. We sat in nature and we were just with each other. We chatted about things other than work and the house projects. We reveled in each others presence. 

As I sit here reflecting on all the beautiful stones we got, I am not just smiling because….ROCKS… but also because I am happy with the time my husband and I had together, in our sweat and the dusty red clay of Georgia. I fell in love with him all over again.

~Candice Carver

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Joy Can Be Dangerous

At first glance, the very topic of joy ought to be one that we all clamor for. Yes! More joy, please. But, that might be a misguided sensibility that we want to rethink. 

Experiences of human joy always come bound by other human experiences which are often qualified as sorrow.* For example, when we know ourselves to be in deep and abiding love with another human being, there is no doubt a thread of joy that runs through that relationship. There is also, spoken or more likely unspoken, the very real likelihood that at some point that relationship will come to an end if by no other means than by the death of one of us, and that thread of joy becomes the experience of sorrow. 

Those of us who are pet lovers and consider our dogs and cats (and other lovely beings) to be actual members of the family bring those loves into our homes and hearts knowing that all things being equal, we will outlive them, and the day will come when they are gone from us. We have done that six times now, in our family and household. And almost four years ago, we went to the humane society and brought home our most recent dog member of the family. All things being equal, we will one day have to say goodbye to her for the last time. 

The point is, our loves, whoever they are, bring joy into our lives, and because we love them, those very same relationships bring episodes of sorrow to us as well. Zadie Smith rightly concludes, then, that joy can be dangerous. When we enter into moments of true human joy, there is always something precious to lose. Our most authentic approach to joy, then, is to acknowledge something like what we do every week in our worship services when we either line up to light candles or we pass the microphone around to speak into the sacred space of our joys and sorrows. They always come together. To speak of sorrow is to imply joy. If I speak of a love whom I have lost to death, there are always immediate stories of the great joys we shared. What we are less likely to say out loud is that when we celebrate a joy, there are also sorrows implied that stand together with them. 

The point of this reflection is not to be a kill-joy. It is to suggest that joy and sorrow travel together in the human heart, and that because they are so deep and intense, they are transformative. If we love, then we are eventually, almost without thinking about it, going to practice joy and sorrow. And they will change us. 

~Bob Patrick

*From his book, The Book of Delights, Ross Gay takes up an image of joy that he openly attributs to Zadie Smith in her essay entitled “Joy,” which you can read here

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Scattered Through the Day

As I’ve gotten older,
I’ve started to notice the spaces between things.

The way sunlight stretches across the wooden floor,
shifting as the day moves forward.

The soft sway of tree branch shadows,
visible only in their movement.

A friend’s message arriving in the middle of the day—
unexpected, but perfectly timed.

Fifteen minutes alone in a café,
hands wrapped around warmth,
nowhere to be but here.

Joy isn’t the whole story.
It isn’t required.
But scattered through the day,
if I pay attention,
I find these small moments—
complete, unassuming, asking nothing—
and I am glad to have noticed.

~Ryan Peterson

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The Practice of Joy: Creative Gratitude

I recently had a conversation with a friend regarding the simple joys we see in everyday
life when we practice gratitude. We exchanged ideas and practices we each use to
express our gratitude for the people, places and things that bring a smile to our face on
a day-to-day basis. One of the things mentioned that I found inspiring is to write a list of
three people (by name if possible), events or situations that brought a surprise of
happiness to our day.

I especially like the idea of naming the person(s) involved. This journal they use was started as a way to creatively seek out and record happy moments from each day, especially because times are difficult. This discussion made me want to start a similar practice for myself.

I enjoy getting creative with gratitude lists. I sometimes list in an A to Z format, listing one or more items beginning with the corresponding letters of the alphabet. At times I use the same process to draw objects, places, and people (such as my cat, Benny) starting with each letter. I like to experiment with how I can express and practice gratitude.

As someone who struggles with bipolar disorder, including painful phases of depression, finding joy in these practices truly helps me keep a more positive perspective. Writing this reminds me that this practice, ever evolving, is always available to me when I need it. What types of gratitude practices bring you joy? Is there something new that comes to your imagination? Try it out; see where it takes you today.

~Jen Garrison

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Roots and Blossoms

I’ve been planting a lot of new perennials in my yard this year, a significant part of this is in response to the uncertainty I’m feeling in a new world with heavy tariffs and a significant number of agricultural workers being unethically detained.

When I told my dad (who knows a ridiculous amount about plants (complementary! )) that I had planted some new plants, he told me to heavily water them to establish the roots. It’s important that the roots of the plants have all the water they could want to get comfortable in their new place in my yard.

I’ve been very focused on those roots. Watering often, and getting others in my family to water when I can’t. 

I’ve been very focused on laying these foundations for our future.

However, yesterday, when I was pulling out of the driveway to go to work, I noticed that the branches of a crabtree I had just planted were blooming with pink flowers. I looked around and there were dozens of white blooms on my pear tree, a handful of hot pink buds on my blueberries, light pink buds on my almond tree, and bright green leaves sprouting on every branch I’ve placed in this earth.

I’ve been so focused on establishing those roots, that I forgot to appreciate the buds, flowers, and fruits.

I still want to put all the effort into helping the roots get established, but I also need to take a few moments to appreciate the fruits of those roots.

~Aline Harris

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