I have been baseline-happy the last two weeks. But not spikey-happy, like “I just had a cookie and I feel artificially pushed up by sugar” happy.
Peaceful happy. Like, I can just lay back and enjoy. No effort required to enjoy.
It doesn’t mean I haven’t felt a huge range of emotion. The days we’re living in are the hardest many of us have been through, and that means joy can be in short supply. And the days will get harder. (Both in the world and in the industry.)
But the way we survive this disruption of our status quo is to find as many things as we can that produce that feeling of peace and calm in us. That feeling of “this is right, this is good, I want more of this.”
Peace is necessary. Happiness is solace.
Some of us who are writers can only write in stability, and that makes writing harder right now. We need the joy and the peace more than anyone.
Some of us writers escape into writing, or can write through the storm, and I wish that was me, but it just isn’t. So I’m focusing on finding joy and peace wherever I can.
Today, it’s an Instagram meme that creates more fire than it quenches. Tomorrow, it’s a cup of coffee in absolute stillness. Yesterday, it was a lovely friend showing such domestic care that it brought me to tears. This morning, it’s another friend’s helpful message making me think about how I show up in the world.
Connection is solace. But connection is built. So I wish you a connected day, today. Connected with your creativity or with your people or with your own heart or your tentative hope for recovery or your knowledge that connection outlasts tempests.
Hug your people, my loves. Protect your hearts. Feel your feelings, Kevin.
– Becca