What is
Joie de Vivre?
A literal translation from French would be “joy of life” or “joy of living.” I think that there is a truth hidden in this simple phrase. Life without joy would not be worth living.
This morning with even more new snow on the ground here in Minneapolis, and snow still falling, wind blowing, and temperatures very cold outside, I could be tempted to moan and wail about this never-ending winter.
Instead, as I think of war torn Ukraine, earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria, climate change, and of other tragedies around the world I feel gratitude for life with all of its challenges. Life is truly amazing and brutiful (brutal and beautiful).
The very joyful thing about seeing ourselves and life from a place of gratitude instead of entitlement— is that this way of breathing allows us to be forgiving of difficult circumstances in life and of those people who delivered such difficult circumstances to us. Gratitude allows us second chances at joy; not with the same circumstances or those same people; but it alleviates the burden of bitterness that comes with not receiving what one believes he/she was entitled to have. We can instead look forward into life and see that there will be many good things and we will be grateful for them.
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Look for the good, look for the helpers
When I look for the good I always find it. Though many are scoffing about all of the preparation for and hype about the big snowstorm we are still experiencing, I see a myriad of good things. Businesses and schools decided to close or switch to online before the storm hit. The city opened up parking lots and garages to city residents to get cars off of the streets so that snow plows could be more effective. Heck, even I was able to re-schedule my Thursday pilates class to earlier in the week before the storm hit.
And all of this was possible because of the meteorologists who study and predict the weather. They saw this storm coming a week before it arrived. This fore-warning allowed businesses and cities to plan ahead rather than simply respond after the fact.
The power of mother nature to make us remember what is important — taking care of one another, helping keep the community safe, savoring the beauty of these days, fills me with joie de vivre.
I’m still looking forward to the end of winter, but while it’s here I’m looking for the good, the helpers, and the beauty.
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.
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Look for the good, the helpers, and the beauty my friends and you will discover joie de vivre.
May you walk in beauty.
Note: photos are the view through my windows this morning
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