Experiencing Joy for no Particular Reason

The drive to my daughter’s house on Thursday night and the subsequent drive home today shared a single unusual trait. In both cases, I had a feeling of euphoria and happiness for no other reason than just being happy. Today, in particular, I found myself smiling broadly as I drove, admiring the view and accepting delays due to slow traffic without losing my euphoric state (although my bladder would have preferred a little less delay as it was cursing quite colorfully by the time I pulled into my driveway!). Even now, I’m experiencing a lightness which comes into my life infrequently.

For now, I’m going to attribute this blissful state to the epiphany Thursday night. It definitely lightened the weight on my mind and perhaps that was all it took to release a bubble of happiness which the world will be hard-pressed to break. The busy week ahead will leave me little time to attract weighty issues to replace the ones I’ve released, and that is a wonderful thing. Instead, I can focus on actually revising and editing, and I’ve already been rewriting the beginning of Sasha’s Journey in my head. I want to allow it to percolate in my head a bit more and maybe sleep on it tonight before I start getting it down on computer screen, and reading the 7th Harry Potter book for the first time is certainly inspirational.

I’ve been seeing a lot of very positive comments about J.K. Rowling’s writing style, but when I picked up the book last night and began to read in what has become my typical critical fashion, my world literally exploded with wonder. She throws the reader right into the middle of things and keeps the story rolling even when the action, as all action does, winds down for a few beats. That ability to keep the reader on the edge of their seat, turning page after page wanting to know what happens next is exactly what I’m looking for in my own writing (and which I know I lack right now). Over the next few days, my plan is to read and study, then try my hand at achieving the things she has.

Although I’ve barely scratched the surface of Elements of Style, I can see how J.K. Rowling, either consciously or not, removed extraneous words, and how much better the story flows as a result. Which means I will, as is my wont, be reading at least three books at a time this week: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Elements of Style and Stephen King-On Writing. These should make a nice addition to both my writing and continued efforts to complete the Holly Lisle How to Think Sideways course. Good thing I have plenty of coffee and tea in the house, and a fairly full freezer!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, the Hermit’s Life for Me

I like to say that I live alone and it suits me fine, but that isn’t entirely true. Arriving home after three days at my daughter’s (or a trip of any length, even if it’s only an hour at the gym), I’m greeted by several of my cats before I get more than a couple of feet in the door. They’re favorite times are when I’m sitting on the couch either reading or paying homage to the one-eyed monster, or working at my desk. As soon as I sat at the desk and fired up the computer this afternoon, my two biggest boys, Toby and Dylan, took pride of place on the top of my desk. (thankfully, the computer has a built in desk of its own leaving the oversized brown monstrosity I inherited from my father free for them to spread themselves across. That is not to say that anything I might leave on the desk top won’t eventually end up on the floor when it gets in the way of their sprawls, but I’ve learned to keep that to a minimum most of the time.

Now that I’ve been home for several hours and Toby has received his share of cuddling, he’s left his perch free for Munchkin and Pyewacket to join Dylan in supervising whatever I might be doing. For once, Pyewacket isn’t trying to clear off the cork board on the wall behind the desk, but it’s only a matter of time before I’m rescuing another push pin from his curious jaws. Dylan, on the other hand, never seems to reach the satiation point, attention-wise, and makes this known by laying on top of my mouse with his belly in the air; a not-so-subtle hint that whatever I might be doing is far less important than his daily dose of attention.

Thinking even for a nanosecond that I live alone is a serious misconception. I have to consider the needs of my roommates before my own, no matter what I might be planning. Even the midnight trip to San Diego when my daughter had an emergency appendectomy was undertaken only after I received an affirmative answer to the text I sent my cat sitter. I shudder to imagine the reception I’d get if they were left completely alone over night! It would surely be rather more disturbing than the cat litter I found scattered across the bathroom floor this afternoon.

Even those of us who consider ourselves hermits succumb to loneliness from time to time, but my furry roommates keep that loneliness from ever really gathering steam and turning into depression. Curling up every night with a bed full of warm bodies snuggling and purring is the best anti-depressant I know. So when I come home happy and silly and full of joy, their presence amplifies it to a level which just might overflow and positively charge the Human Energy Field a little. As I think about that, I give it a little boost with some more loving energy. While more and more I hide posts about hate and war and death and abuse, I do so while sending loving energy. Maybe that’s why I’m filling with joy for no apparent reason. The love and light I’m sending to those who seem to need it most is starting to overflow too, and coming back to me so I can overflow and send even more of it out to the Universe in general.

Whether you believe in the process I describe or not, can it really hurt to send those positive thoughts out there as often as possible? The power of prayer or focused meditation or whatever we choose to call it is full of possibilities. If we can use it to help heal a seriously ill friend, imagine what focused effort on the part of many can do for the ills of the world. <ok, stepping off my soapbox now>

Before I go off on another tangent, here are my gratitudes for tonight?
1. I am grateful for joy with no reason.
2. I am grateful for beautiful weekends with my kids.
3. I am grateful for the welcome I receive when I return home, and the love my pets bring into my life.
4. I am grateful for the people who are supporting my writing by reading, commenting or just sending positive thoughts. I hear you, I feel you and I appreciate you. With your help, I will achieve the lofty goals I’ve set.
5. I am grateful for abundance: understanding, love, joy, happiness, compassion, health, harmony, peace, prosperity and philanthropy.

Blessed Be