Everyday Joy

It’s been a cold week in Minnesota. And though the temperatures are a bit warmer today, it’s still darn cold outside. In my online Soma Yoga class this morning, one of my classmates said exactly what I’ve been thinking — “I am so done with January!”

But January is not done with us. So what can one do? I suggest you spend some time seeking

What makes you laugh? And what little thing that you can do right now that brings you joy? For me, spending time making photographs is the thing I can do right now, right here. Even if most of my photographs are of ordinary objects in our home, or of views through the windows of our house, I find joy doing this.

Another thing I love to do is listen to cello music. YoYo Ma and Pablo Cassals are two of my favorite cellists. The sound of the cello moves something in my soul that no other instrument does. Is there a musical instrument that moves you deeply? When was the last time you listened to it?

For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner. It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house. But that is not its only meaning for me. It is a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being. The music is never the same for me, never. Each day is something new, fantastic, unbelievable. That is Bach, like nature, a miracle!

— Pablo Cassals

A third thing I love to do is put on some lively music and dance in the living room. It doesn’t matter what I look like dancing. It only matters that it feels good moving my body and that it brings me joy.

I do not think a day passes in my life in which I fail to look with fresh amazement at the miracle of nature. It is there on every side. It can be simply a shadow on a mountainside, or a spider’s web gleaming with dew, or sunlight on the leaves of a tree. I have always especially loved the sea. Whenever possible, I have lived by the sea… It has long been a custom of mine to walk along the beach each morning before I start to work. True, my walks are shorter than they used to be, but that does not lessen the wonder of the sea. How mysterious and beautiful is the sea! how infinitely variable! It is never the same, never, not from one moment to the next, always in the process of change, always becoming something different and new.

— Pablo Casals

What will you do to bring a little everyday joy into you life today my friends?

May you walk in beauty.