What is joy?
According to a Ted Talk by Ingrid Fetell Lee “Where Joy Hides and Where to Find it” Joy is an intense, momentary experience of emotion, one that makes us smile and laugh, right now. Today, I find and make time for joy in my life.
This morning started, as mornings do now, with the wake-up call of our rooster. Daily this one simple change… a rooster, not an alarm, symbolizes how much our lives have shifted; from indoors to outdoors; from processing paper to pounding tires.
For our anniversary I painted my fingernails bright pink… to cover the stains from digging in the dirt! Bright pink dots – JOYFUL.
It’s emotionally risky this change, always meeting new people, sharing stories, and opening oneself up to judgment. Being joyful, bursting out in laughter, surrounding ourselves in pops of colour, and shapes; creating a feeling of abundance, that’s emotionally risky too. Grown-ups don’t do that…
Over the summer our visitors express amazement at what we are doing, disbelief at how much we have (or perhaps haven’t) accomplished so far, a desire to help us, and/or a shaking of heads at the enormity of the task at hand. Our stock answer is we have the rest of our lives to complete this project (as if this type of project actually is ever complete!) and we are enjoying the process and people coming into our lives. Our visitors frequently return. There is ‘something (joyful) about what you are doing’ they say.
Our volunteers live in the moment; they experience joy. We experience the joy and the gratitude that comes with sharing.
A new friend asks… Why are you doing this? What happened to you to bring you to the decision to do this? Aren’t you afraid of how big your project is? We’ve been talking all summer it seems, but now with most of our volunteers gone for the season, we talk, just the two of us.
Our project(s) is simple really. We’re building a farm & learning centre, including an Earthship and community gardens. A space/place where people interested in natural building and Permaculture can gather to learn together. We are not the experts. We provide the opportunity.
Our community gardens will open on Earth Day 2019. Twenty-three 50 square foot garden boxes made using the off cuts from our sawmill and available for growers of any age or ability ($25/year) and a few shared hours in the garden. Some of the boxes will be available for sponsorship… a little like a CSA program but with the food grown donated to the community food bank. If you want to help build a box, till the soil and get the gardens ready then let me know. If you want to reserve or sponsor a garden box, let me know that too!
Doug’s questions: Why? What happened?
Our answers: Care of Earth, Care of People, Sharing of Abundance… We can make a difference and so we must.
P.S. Our phone just rang with an offer of thousands of empty wine bottles. That sound you just heard, pure joy! We’ll be using those bottles to build our walls. 🙂