Then in the 1950s


2024 After the fire

We are in the middle of a massive remodel of our kitchen which makes day to day living a little tougher. We moved out of our kitchen the last week of May and hope to have a kitchen by Labor Day. It is a weird blend of good and bad. The food is delicious–slow cooked on the grill. We work together to make delicious meals. We eat a lot of protein and local Ontario produce. Breakfast is a little weird, cooked on the grill. I notice sometimes I want fast breakfast. And the rain… the rain usually leads to take-out. Sometimes I get cranky. Sometimes we all get cranky.

 

I have struggled to feel joy this summer. It feels important to stand in a solidarity of sadness with the town I care about. Day-to-day living is a little more stressful. Real joy feels illusive this year. I feel more introverted.

This weekend I heard a sermon by minister Reilly Yeo at the First Unitarian Church of Toronto. I caught the service online. In the sermon, Rev. Yeo distinguishes between happiness and delight. Delight is in the moments that we happen on. Those moments we are fully present to our lives. Delight can happen even when we aren’t full of happiness–even when we are sad. Delight and sadness can co-exist.

I have found this to be a powerful thought. This summer joy feels distant but delight feels possible and present. 

I am enjoying the feel of the swimming pool. The fresh grass, the green all around, the laughter of family and friends….it feels ever present. The promise of future joy lives in me while my emotions hold it back. I am delighted by the possibilities, the moments, the conversation, coffee by the pool in the morning. I am also present to my horror at the floods and loss in Ruidoso and to the feelings of compassion for the people struggling to figure it out. I am awash with all the emotions. 

It is in the moments of delight I restore myself, my heart, my soul.

Where are you on your journey? Do you want to focus on joy or delight this summer?