Joy

“What sparks joy?” — Wow, such a simple but complicated question to think about.

The first sentence that mapped on my head when I thought about this was — “What makes me happy?” Yeps, what are the things that make me happy? Period. Move along.

But it cannot be this simple, right?

I used to think that there are certain things that would always make me happy (or spark joy), many small/big things that I always look forward to doing. Those activities that I could fall back to when I need to find happiness.

Reading. Cooking. Listening to Music. Talking to friends. Writing code. Community Building. These are things that I look forward to. These are the things that I thought sparked my inner self.

But, do they always spark joy?

Not really.

They make me happy at different moments, at different circumstances. Listening to music during my commute sparks joy — when I’m reading, it’s a distraction. Cooking sparks joy when I have a lot of free time — the rest of the time I’m making to fill my tummy. Coding sparks joy when I’m making something for a cause— the rest of the time, I’m forcefully learning to get better.

For me, an activity sparks joy at a moment and for a reason.

Sometimes when I feel down, I don’t like to do anything from my make-me-happy-list. But those were suppose to spark joy in me, right?

The idea of ‘new’ can spark joy.

You might feel that a weekend trip wouldn’t spark joy after you’ve made up your mind to spend your entire weekend on your bed watching Netflix. The experience might spark joy. You don’t know. The new can spark joy.

It is interesting that this is a life long process of exploring and finding things that sparks joy inside you, or truly things that make you.

‘Til then.