Tags
No tags :(
…..
The Difference Between Joy and Happiness
…..
…..
I have been disillusioned. I thought writing would make me happy. The truth is, it is full of peaks and valleys. Ups and downs. It fills me up and then leaves me hungry again. Some days it is merely knowing what words will describe my angst best. An act of smoke and mirrors that mostly leaves me wanting more.
But behind the act of writing there is something that all these words are designed to explain. There is a joy that I find in discovering words, arranging them, getting to know them.
I am a word hound, a hunter. I used to walk through book stores not to buy books, but to read the titles, flip to a page just to see if something jumped out.
I order catalogs full of roses just to read their names. I write poems so I can name them. Or I have a name and I write a poem to suit its face.
The Joss of My Fame, Luna Moths and the Use of Space, Sleeping Dogs and Blueberry Skies, The Farmer’s Prayer…
My favorite class in horticulture school was Woody ID, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, commonly known as the Dawn Redwood Tree. All those Latin names! They make me want to roll in the grass like a dog on a spring day!
Yes, I was disillusioned when I thought writing would make me happy. Instead it brings me joy.
But this joy is not found in applause, feedback, comments or seeing my silly blog rankings go up. These are external things, small happiness things, and happiness does not stick.
Joy is found when you know this. When you know that happiness is a temporal and momentary stage. The tulips, they come and go. Day-lilies? Well, they only bloom for a day.
If my outside is a garden -
Let the paths be paved with Latin names
The Zen word for enlightenment
A phrase snatched from an epitaph
Or the last breath of the dead
The whisper of a butterfly wing
My ear is cupped to the wind
Let my garden path be paved
With bricks of poetry
The crest of a wave?
There must be a name for that
The name of that tree?
Or the bird singing in its leaves?
Life is what is left on the tip of your tongue after all the words have been said – and there has to be a word for that.
I somehow feel better and lighter knowing this, having shed myself of this happiness myth.
Knowing that happiness is not something that stays, I can cease seeking it.
Knowing that happiness is external and joy is like an old friend who simply pours herself a cup of tea from the inside. And as long as there are words, my cup, it runs over.
Ian Hamilton Finlay is one of the most inspiring garden and word artists to me. His work is amazing, how he found the perfect words, proclaimed their meanings and set them in stone. He let the landscape of gardening dictate what it wanted. He listened and then set to work creating Little Sparta. One day I will go there to visit the beautiful gardens he created in the Pentland Hills of Scotland.
In the meantime, if I am not writing I am usually outside working in my own garden. Something I look forward to starting soon is a page on my blog dedicated to this beautiful place where I live, The Jasmine Bower House.
Do we plant our seeds for later inspiration or are we inspired to plant the seeds first? Which comes first?
The wind blowing inside the wind ~
The water curving inside the river’s house
This thing we call joy ~
It whispers from the inside out
…..
18 comments
March 28, 2012 at 9:09 AM
Wow. That was a really good way to wake up this morning. Words turning into music inside my brain Nicole . Have a great day! Terry the Piano Tuner.
March 28, 2012 at 10:59 AM
Hi Terry,
I take that as a great compliment coming from a Piano tuner as you. I wonder what key I write in?
Nicole~
March 28, 2012 at 12:42 PM
Yes I totally agree that this thing we call JOY whispers and does’t shout from the inside out!
Your question you pose to us your readers: “Do we plant our seeds for later inspiration or are we inspired to plant the seeds first? Which comes first?”
I am inspired to plant the seeds first and then I can watch as the seeds take root and grow with our occasional watering…..watch the seeds turn into beautiful flowers, vegetables or plants. The seed in my sense is the inspirational “word” to a stranger, to a friend of long ago, to the moment of life.
I too love the “word” and words can be used to inspire or to tear apart – I choose to plant the words and then they take root.
In love and light,
Nancy
March 28, 2012 at 7:08 PM
Planting words – what a great occupation. I have heard that the artist Matisse planted his garden just so he could have something to paint from. I have not been able to find any information online about this, but maybe this is what we all do. We plant the gardens that will most inspire us. Most of us anyway
I catch a lot of guilt and ribbing from my family members because I live in a bubble. Oh well – such is life and it is my life.
N~
March 28, 2012 at 3:51 PM
“life is what is left on the tip of your tongue after all the words have been said”
I really like this…that beautiful silence when all those words have been said; released.
March 28, 2012 at 7:03 PM
Yes, and there has to be a word for that feeling right? Maybe it is just life or joy?
N~
March 28, 2012 at 10:52 PM
I don’t really think anyone can define the word “happiness” all that well, Nicole.
However, we all know what it feels like to have joy and content in our hearts.
Happiness is all about our circumstances. Joy is how we choose to react to those circumstances.
By the way, thanks for all your support!
March 29, 2012 at 12:34 PM
Hi Ana,
There are few marketing blogs that I continue to follow and yours is one of them. So no problem with the support. I appreciate the honesty in your posts.
I feel it in my bones that you will be settled into a great house in your new location soon. Set your intention – not a goal – just an intention and then let it go. If you can find joy in your situation ‘now’ then the ups and down of happiness will be a piece of cake.
Peace- Nicole~
March 29, 2012 at 4:16 AM
Awesome Nicole!!!
March 29, 2012 at 12:35 PM
Noooo – you make me blush Gabri. You are awesome! Really – you are!
March 29, 2012 at 2:05 PM
Now you are making me blush … !
But honestly, all your articles have that “something” in them, and this one has a wisdom in it, of truths that seem obvious now that you have spoken them, yet elusive for most to articulate …
I think that your integrity is the foundation of your artistic work, that you write truthfully, for the sake of art itself …
March 29, 2012 at 4:10 PM
And shouldn’t that be the case for all art – ‘The integrity should be the foundation – that we create truthfully – for the sake of art itself…’
Beautifully said.
Nicole~
March 29, 2012 at 12:45 PM
Hi Nicole! I like the poem you wrote. By the way are you the one who took a photo of that flower?
March 29, 2012 at 4:04 PM
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Yes, I took the photo of the Gaura. It was taken in my garden.
March 29, 2012 at 2:50 PM
Such a beautiful article, and I totally agree with you, you only comes when unexpected, e only have to be patient and wait for it. And we have to recognize, that happiness and love and all the beautiful things in life (as life itself) are temporary.
March 29, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Hi Julie,
Temporary things don’t stick – much like happiness. The words don’t even matter – it is the joy the writing brings me. But which comes first? The wind inside the wind…Kind of like the chicken and the egg. Are we inspired first or inspired by what is created. Thanks for commenting.
Nicole~
April 2, 2012 at 3:27 AM
Happiness is the intrinsic characteristic of individual. We’re always longing for this in this world, whether in relationship, beauty, possession, power, opulence. But we’re always broken hearted. The fact is we’re looking it in the wrong place, wrong person. We should understand that matter cannot really satisfy us, the spiritual being. This is not our real place, so we should find where we belong? Who are we?
April 3, 2012 at 7:49 AM
Joseph,
Thanks for your comment. I agree – these things of matter don’t satisfy. Happiness is so fleeting. I think when we discover everyday our spirit then joy is possible. And your question of who are we? Can we ever really answer that question? I tend to think we were sent here to forgive, to forgive not just others but ourselves. Sent here to learn self forgiveness maybe. It sounds selfish at first – but we can only do and be best for others when we are right with ourselves. But, that is just my take on it.
Nicole~