You Say It's Your Birthday!

Below are all of the birthday presents that I received as a result of my quest to know what brings you joy and can't be taken away, except maybe by death.

Thank you for sharing the joy! There are no right or wrong, good or bad answers to my question. The beauty is in the sharing of our uniqueness.

I found that I could relate to every one of the answers I received. Maybe you will, too. Even with our uniqueness, there is a thread that ties us all together.

I hope that the answers below give you pause to consider the beauty of joy in all of our lives.

And I hope you don't go blind trying to read the words below. I put this together before we left for the east coast and it is what it is.

Again, thank you, from the bottom of my pea-pickin' heart!











A late entry:
My source of joy, which could be taken from me, if they ever decide that coffee is 100% bad for you, or if I can no longer afford fresh coffee beans...a simple daily ritual that brings me joy: getting up before my husband, or the "kids" (when they're sleeping under the same roof), grinding some French roast beans, then brewing them slowly. I stand at the kitchen window, looking out at the foothills, inhaling what to me is one of the most comforting aromas--fresh dark coffee. The first sip is the best. I often have it in an ugly mug that is of sentimental value to me. Even if this ritual were taken from me, I'd find something else. It's the repetition of simple familiar actions--pulling the grinder off the top shelf, getting out the bag of beans, opening it to have a whiff, setting the grinder to the correct intensity, pouring in the sweet water from our own well, waiting for the magic to happen...it's the ritual that matters. Before the others are up, the house is quiet, and it's my quiet time to indulge.

Offer Ends Today!

If you haven't taken the opportunity to be impermanently recorded for all posterity, today's the day. Act now; offer ends today at 6:00 p.m., Mountain Time (around 1:00 a.m., UK time, I believe).

I'm looking for joy! I'm absorbing all of the joy I can find in this lead-up to the solstice (which is also the anniversary of my birth, which took place at a time when yes, there was television, but the view was all black and white).

If you aren't aware of my request for joy, please click here and then, if you are just oozing with possibilities, please share them with me. It's a gift. To yourself. And to me. And to all of my 21,546 readers. Ha!

On June 21st, I will be sharing all of the joy with anyone who happens upon this blog. At that time, I'll be in far off lands, celebratin', but I'll still have a computer and I'll still be thinkin' of you!

As of now, my daughter is in town (talk about joy!) and we've been doing girly things. She holds my hand and MAKES me walk through stores. Stores! Not my favorite environments, unless they are full of fresh vegetables. But these stores have been full of clothes. I have finally found myself the perfect Derby hat!


Not for Derby goin', but for standing in the beatin' down, Colorado sun every Saturday. And also for takin' to the far off land where I hear there are beaches. A girl has to have somethin' to protect her fair skin from the elements.

And my daughter and I have been sharing thoughts and dreams that could not be shared in such ways until now. Some things have to wait until a certain amount of life experience has occurred. She and I are barely mother and daughter now. She is a capable woman who is my friend. How lucky I am!

Now I've come full circle: joy, stores, hats, daughters, dreams, and more joy, for all of the above fills me with such happiness.

Impermanent Joy #4

Family.

They may make us crazy sometimes, but they are a gift.


Family photo taken at my daughter's wedding in 2001. Ex-in-laws, current in-laws, ex-husband, current husband, son, daughter and many more.

Impermanent: One divorce has occurred since the photo was taken. One person has passed on since then. Three of the young'uns have graduated from high school. I've gotten old.

Nothing appears to ever stay the same.

The thread that runs through it all is love.

Impermanent Joy #3

Friends.

Oh, what a night!

Mr. Carol For Peace and I spent the evening with ghosts from the past.

I graduated from high school almost a gazillion years ago. I haven't been to a reunion in a long time and I don't really have any friends left from high school, even though I moved back to Colorado 20 years ago.

In high school, I was so SHY... Oh my. I can't tell you how SHY I was. Now I'm shy. Then I was SHY. And I came from a strict family where I wasn't allowed to do things that most high school kids do. AND I always felt like I was "less than" most of my classmates. An invisible, SHY, young thing.

But growing up and Facebook are both amazing healers.

Through Facebook, I was invited to join a bunch of classmates at a winery where we celebrated life. One classmate has recovered from a liver/kidney transplant and another has had a successful surgery to minimize his Parkinson's symptoms. How fitting that we should be celebrating their lives. It's actually pretty nice to go to a Celebration of Life when the person you're celebrating is still alive!

And guess what!?! People remembered me! I belonged! It was so much fun!

We talked about so-and-so and him and her, where is she now, what is he doing?

We caught up with each other as if we were long-lost family.

Did I tell you it was wonderful? It was wonderful.

Friends come and go. Sometimes we grieve the loss, sometimes we're relieved.

Sometimes friends come back and we may discover that we are not who we thought we were.

Impermanent Joy #2

A few years ago, I did my first Vision Quest. The wind was howling as I tried to create my little shelter by tying my big, silver tarp to an old, ragged juniper tree on one side and some large, sandstone rocks on the other. The wind and I worked against each other for what seemed like hours. Every time I thought I had the tarp all nice and tight, it would sag somewhere. A saggy tarp is a nice place for water to puddle. Since it was looking like rain was coming in, I felt an urgent need to create a useful shelter from the storm.

At one point, a corner grommet tore off of my tarp. I would say that at that moment, despair was a possible option. Not that it would solve my problem.

THEN I remembered a trick that I was taught. The technique was suggested as a way to tighten the middle of a tarp, but I figured that it just might work for a corner as well. Sure enough, I successfully tied up a little pebble in the corner of the tarp and that created a little "button" that I could wrap the rope around in order to tie up that corner.

I don't know how to convey the exhilarating feeling of empowerment that moment gave me.

I got my tarp all prettied-up right before the rains started and pulled my pack and sleeping bag in before they got wet.

The joy that I felt when I figured out how to handle my situation seems to be an illusive sort of thing, so I keep that piece of torn-off tarp on my desk as a reminder that I have everything I need.






P.S. If you haven't yet done so, please send me your answer to the 64 million dollar question. You'll be happy you did. (I hope.) Just click here to find out how.

Impermanent Joy #1

Thank you to all who have responded to my Joyful Request -whether by email, comment, or through filling out my contact form. I'm TRYING not to respond to responses received. They are yours - not for me to like or dislike or relate to or nuthin'. They are your life, your art. On the solstice, I will compile them into one blog post and we will have a joyful quilt.

If you haven't sent me your answer yet, time's a-wastin'! Act now! Offer expires... ummm... soon! Click here to find out about this exciting opportunity!

~~~~~

Before the frosts had stopped, I planted pea seeds, hoping that this year, the weather gods would smile upon me and I would have more peas than we could eat. I planted all sugar snap peas - none of that shelling and throwing away pods for me.

There are now Peas on Earth!

And amongst all of the eatin' peas, somehow a sweet pea plant has grown! This is not the eatin' kind. It's just for sweet beauty.

This time of year, I love to find wild sweet peas along the hiking trails. Now I have my very own, right here.

And I can't stop hearing the gravelly sound of Popeye's voice exclaiming "Swee' Pea!"

Joy to the World

Do you have a source of joy in your life that can't be taken away (except possibly by your death)?

That's my question of the month.

It's not an easy question to answer, I realize.

I am asking it of my non-blog-reading friends (almost no one that I know in "real life" reads my blog - isn't THAT interesting???)

I'm also asking that of you.

As a gift to me, would you be willing to tell me what, if anything, is a source of joy for you - a source of joy that can't be taken away? Please answer on my contact form at my old blog by clicking here.

If you have no answer, please also have no worries.

This is not about creating stress.

I have a special day coming up and this is a gift for me. I am unashamedly asking you to help me celebrate this day which will take place as the earth receives the sun for a heavenly number of hours.

When that day arrives, I will share the answers I've received, both from my blog and from people around me. But of course all who respond will remain anonymous.

I'll even answer my own question. Can my answer be anonymous, also???

Joy to the World by Three Dog Night (with some minor changes)

If I were the queen of the world
Tell you what I'd do
I'd throw away the cars and the bars and the war
And send sweet love to you

Joy to the world
All the boys and girls
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me