Wake Me When It's Over: Finding Joy

After some difficult conversations yesterday, I woke up this morning from an outstanding dream involving turquoise blue ocean, sand, and a very handsome and virile man, and all I could think was, "Please let me go back to that enchanted place, and don't wake me up until winter is over. And the recession is over. And the Cheney-Bush regime is over. And my siege of un- and under-employment is over. And my Year of the Endless Dental or Medical Appointment is over and America has single-payer universal health insurance. And the holidays are either over or my dysfunctional family issues are 100 percent resolved so I don't feel guilty and bad and damaged. And . . . . " I could go on. I really, really wanted to go back to that dream.

On a morning like that, what can you do but try to overcome? Joseph Campbell advocated a tenet of Tibetan Buddhism: Joyful participation in the sorrows of life. The great poet and thinker Wendell Berry has his own version: Be joyful though you've considered all the facts. Heh. That one fits these times, doesn't it? I like these sayings because they acknowledge that, well, life sucks sometimes; the trick is to navigate joyously within that context. Building a capacity for joy is something I have to work hard on in this life; we're all born with it, but for some of us it gets pretty beaten up early on, and has to be gently rebooted and cultivated. 

Lisa Call has a recent post called 31 Days of Joy; she's fresh from a Christine Kane workshop and using all that good energy to dedicate December to joy. It's inspiring; I like the idea of a word of the month to go along with a word of the year. Lisa also says that she gets 100,000 page views a month on her blog, which left me pondering what it would take to get that kind of readership. My first thought was that I needed to focus more on a single aspect of textiles, but that's not really who I am; I'm interested in so many things, and the connections between things, and the beauty of writing, for me, is that I get to explore all those connections. 

The possibility of joy is a quality that defines textile art and craft (and painting too) for me; that doesn't mean that every stitch makes me grin like a fool, but that I find joy and immense possibility in making objects and working with beautiful materials, and in finding it in the handwork of others through the ages. So if at the moment I can't live in my dream world on the beach, I'll keep working on being grateful every day for the beauty and creativity in this world, and doing my part to hold that torch high. It's good to be awake, after all. 

Painting: Raoul Dufy, Bay of Angels, 1926

Comments

[Lainie]

Thank you for all the lovely comments . . .

Marja-Leena, take good care of yourself. Your blog is stunning. I did printmaking in college, and miss it; such a wonderful art.

Jude - Hi there. I picked up the new Quilting Arts today and was thrilled to see your work, and look forward to reading the article.

Paula - okay, I am officially turning over the glass-half-empty crown to you. I appreciate your wise words, though. I'm familiar with the difference between readership and page views, and also the shortcomings of beaches and men, but I can tell you that if I were with my own personal Prince Charming on a beautiful beach, and sand and sunburn were our biggest problems, I'd feel like a very lucky woman indeed.

Hi Heather - thanks always for your comments. These dreams are hard to let go of on winter mornings, indeed. Hope all of yours are good.

[Heather]

What a wonderful post Robyn. I, too, have a hard time releasing dreams, as I always seem to have really vivid ones, which is sometimes not so good when they are bad dreams.

But finding joy - you have so eloquently voiced what it has taken me a while to find, and what I must constantly remember to re-find on the bad days. I will definitely check out your links and I love the quote about joyfully participating in sorrows of life.

[Paula Hewitt]

dont confuse readership with page views - on my blog i get hundereds of hits on a couple of posts/pages - people searching for a particular thing and going again - but readers are the ones who stay with you, read it all, comment occasionally ;). write what interests you, not for readers, and the readership will grow (or not - but i dont care either way)
and as for beaches with turquoise waters and white sands - be warned - they arent that great in reality - the sun glares of the sand and gives you a raging headache and very bad sunburn...and the virile man will have sand in his boardshorts and be whinging about it.

[tfitz]

Now I cannot even remember how I got to your blog. Interesting reading -- keep it up.

[jude]

acceptance of whatever is how i have overcome many sadnesses. i just focus on something else. and it is never readership. highly misleading. having a craft is a good source of conversation, even if it is with yourself. has to start there anyway.

[marja-leena]

Inspiring words, especially in these times. I'm struggling with some health issues too, which have recently prevented me from doing my art. It takes a bit more effort these days to feel grateful and have joy, but yes, it's good to be awake. Thanks for this!