Finding Joy In Unexpected Places
A year ago, last May, I experienced a moment of unexpected sheer joy. I had been plugging along working at a job that no longer gave me joy. This was the last month of my teaching career. Depleted and exhausted, counting the days until it was over, when two friends invited me to watch something called Eurovision. It was a school night and my usual spot on the couch was calling my name, however, my friends insisted I wouldn’t regret it. I dragged myself away from comfort and drove over to my friend’s house. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a glass of wine, watch this Eurovision for a few hours and be home in bed by 10. Much to my surprise, Eurovision was EPIC! If you are unfamiliar with Eurovision it is an international song contest. For an entire year, every participating country has contests to determine which band or artist will represent their country. Then there are a series of other contests until the top 36 songs are chosen. These are the artists and songs showcased in the grand finale Eurovision contest. IT IS OVER THE TOP! Mostly catchy, ear worm dance songs, with theatrical, cultural and societal themes, and a few hard rocking bands but mostly crazy fun costumes, lighting, special effects, dancing, incredibly enthusiastic commentators and uplifting music. Such fun, energizing, beautiful music. We laughed, we cried, we were on the edge of our seats not wanting to miss a single act. People dressed in the most outrageous costumes making us ponder who would ever think to do that? Each song we assessed whether or not would win, choosing our favorites, then came the judging, every country participating gets to vote for their favorite song (excluding their country) and then votes come in from the people watching to determine the Eurovision winner. It’s dramatic, funny, campy, I was hooked. When I left my friend’s house that night at 12:30 am, I was energized and happy, listening to the winning song on my phone on the way home (Ukraine won with the song Stefania by Kalush Orchestra). This crazy, campy, over the top song contest had lifted my gloom and sparked the joy hidden inside me. This moment of joy carried me through the rest of the school year as I bopped my way to school listening to the Eurovision songs over and over again, making me smile, feeling the joy.
We don’t always know what will spark the joy in us. Most of the time, joy comes from something simple and unexpected. I believe that love and joy resides in all of us, we just need to tap into it. Want to tap into your inner joy?
Check out this Sunday’s Yoga Nidra Zoom Class at 7 pm MDT.
