Don't Postpone Joy

Dear Readers,

As the school year draws to a close, I’m feeling a familiar sense of bittersweet.?

One the one hand, it’s the beginning of the summer break, where we will enjoy a bit of slower pace and some family adventures with our teenagers (ages 15 + 17), and on the other hand an urge to stop the clock, a sense of time slipping by so fast as the kids hurtle toward independence in an unsettled world.?

They are two of my very favorite humans on this earth, and watching them spread their wings and become more themselves each year is a joy.?

I’m sharing again a story I’ve told before - a conversation I had with a new work acquaintance several years ago that has stuck with me in the way conversations do when they feel particularly serendipitous, meaningful, and meant for you to hear.?

I was just about to set out on my year+ sabbatical break from the working world, without a plan of what to do on the other side.?

He shared that a few years back he and his wife had lost a child at the age of 14. Perhaps he sensed my tendency toward wanting to find the “right” and “best” way to live (sometimes at the expense of living the present moment in whatever form it takes).?

Perhaps he was simply moved to share some wisdom earned by living through his unspeakable pain.

He said simply:

“Not everything is a problem to be solved”??and

“Don’t postpone joy”

In the hustle of American work culture, where?everything?is indeed a problem to be solved (by hustling hard, sleeping when you’re dead, or buying a magic fix), and joy is always postponed in pursuit of climbing that ladder to nowhere, these statements feel at once obvious and incomprehensible.?

Side note: You’ll be dead a lot quicker if you don’t sleep well and often. There are countless studies that show sleep is key to mental and physical health, as well as longevity.?

I wish you for you, as you prepare yourself for a new season, to make space to stop all the endless doing, even for a few hours, and allow yourself to notice simple moments of joy in your midst.?

I came across this poem by one of my literary heroes, Mary Oliver, for the first time recently. It’s called?Don’t Hesitate.?

It feels especially appropriate in the cultural moment we are in, with layoffs mounting and uncertainty growing, and where the weight of the world can feel too heavy to bear. She reminds us it is possible (essential even) to allow joy even in the midst of all of life’s challenges.?