It’s funny how easily we can forget about the things that truly bring us joy.
Personally, I can go months, sometimes even years convincing myself that a particular thing is what I really, truly want, that those other things no longer matter to me. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell the difference between organic love and the things I’ve subscribed to. I’ll go to such great lengths, in fact, that I frequently find myself right smack in the middle of a situation where I fully intended to enjoy myself, and wondering how long it will take for the bliss to arrive.
In those situations, it often doesn’t come at all, and I begin to ask questions. What’s wrong with me? Does nothing excite me any longer? Am I depressed? Am I just committed to being an unhappy person?
What it really takes to snap me out of it is to revisit something that I deeply, passionately care about. Like today, when I put on a snorkel mask and kicked around in the ocean for a few minutes.
See, what really sets these things apart is how little the quality matters. Today’s snorkeling session was mainly comprised of time spent looking at sand. It took ages for me to find any form of wildlife, and even then it was a very small school of bait fish who blended in perfectly with the sandy bottom. A perfectly reasonable justification to exit the water and tell passers-by that there was nothing to see; but in reality, I had the time of my life following around those little fish and wiggling my fingers at them.
Such a stark contrast to the music festival I worked at last weekend, where I stood surrounded by lasers and art installations, dodging some of the most interesting looking people I’ve ever been around, listening to DJs on megawatt soundsystems, and said….. “Meh.”
It’s possible that music festivals and concerts don’t actually bring me joy. I don’t want to say that. I don’t want to admit it. But it might be true.
So what does bring me joy, for certain? Snorkeling. Cooking and eating delicious food. Coffee. Road trips. Succulents.
There are more, surely, but these are the first and foremost in my mind.
Surely, there must be a way to combine all of those into a lifestyle that will work for me.
