I’ve lately been finding, feeling joy in sweet, quotidian, small (“small”) moments. Waking in a comfortable bed. Holding the littlest homegrown strawberry in my hand. Seeing a heavenly summer sunset crack open the sky over Bern, Switzerland. Appreciating a whole tour group in Bruges admire how my dad, the self-made history buff, got every answer the guide posed on our tour, correct, and then some. (Beer was invented in Mesopotamia! Cacao comes from the Aztecs, and did you know they had no sugar, instead using cinnamon to sweeten it?)
It’s been in this time of small joys that a friend shared this perfect Mary Oliver poem, “Don’t Hesitate,” below. Don’t hesitate. Give in to joy.
“Don’t Hesitate” by Mary Oliver
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate.
Give in to it.
There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be.
We are not wise, and not very often kind.
And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left.
Perhaps this is its way of fighting back,
that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world.
It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins.
Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty.
Joy is not made to be a crumb.
Related thoughts I’ve shared: