© Andrew Kazmierski | Dreamstime Stock Photos

1.

Some days you have to look hard to find the joy. The El Portal fire is blowing smoke our way from the community of Foresta that houses Yosemite Park employees. An eye-stinging reminder of what we suffered in the Rim fire last year, we say prayers for our neighboring communities.

Ash seasons our already muggy air as if some heavy handed chef dumped too much slurry in the soup, and I begin to lose my taste for this day.

2.

Joy is an emotion, a feeling of great delight or happiness triggered by some exceptionally good or satisfying event. I felt it yesterday when I saw two postings on Facebook: a video of my granddaughter playing my mother’s piano and belting out a song, and a photo of my son’s Telly award for his contribution to a music video.

Strangely, I think I take more joy in the accomplishments of my family and friends than I do my own. The joys of reaching a publishing milestone are surprisingly short-lived, whereas I bask longer in the glory of my children’s joy. Could it be that sustained joy requires connection?

I sometimes let my joy get beaten down by the environment. It only takes a few minutes on Facebook scrolling through posts that scream in my face for me to lose my joy.

Look at THIS! You won’t believe what happens next!

Seriously cute ALERT! Seriously, you have to see this!

A trip to Macy*s Department Store can do it. All those sad clothes in bad colors, reeking of chemicals, clinging to each other on carousal racks, marked down from $75 to $5.99.

What to do when joy takes a coffee break and decides to bag it for the rest of the day?

4.

There is a trick that writers use when they need to infuse new energy into a scene. Change the focus. Lift a character’s eyes to a new horizon, or fix their attention on something close, closer, even closer.

I can’t see the horizon today for the smoke, but I can train my mind’s eye on the shore of Bainbridge Island, where I will arrive tomorrow for a ten-day visit with my daughter dedicated to restoring health giving joy.

I focus my eyes on a silent cluster of oak leaves on the still branch just outside my office window. The branch begins to dance, and a tiny seed whirls out of the foliage and helicopters past my view. Whee!

5.

True joy can’t be manufactured, it has to be discovered, noticed, appreciated, and perhaps shared. How do you restore joy?