Joy Is an Act of Resistance

I have a white board that sits near my computer. It holds many quotes that I have written over the years. 

A few of them talk about doing what I know how to do. 

More of them remind me to keep going in tough times. 

I have one that came to me after reading recently from Toi Derricotte. The poem called The Kelly Cycle has a line that says 

                Joy is an act of resistance. 

This line caused me to think about more things deeply. 

Perhaps it was the first word that captured my attention, well, first. 

Joy is the thing that has come to our home in a way that has surprised others. 

I have looked for it from the time I was small and then when we had a small one toddling around us. 

One act at a time was how I started in the beginning. 

Do you find that joy is where it starts for you? 

Sweet! 

Let’s begin with a thought about resisting the things that can take joy. 

There has been a list of things that came to me as I sat with this possible idea. 

Consider them with me. 

There is stress in life. Things that don’t go the way you planned that causes stress or anxiety. Things that come up or happen. You have to deal with each of them. 

Too much to do and not enough time. 

Attitude and lack of gratitude. 

Comparing what is seen to what is not known. 

What is there to do when each of these come into a space? 

The next thought that came to me was this. 

When joy is an act of resistance, each of these things become what can be looked at.

When joy is an act of resistance, each of these things become a part of what can be looked at to find their other side. 

This is when I started to go into the quote with a pause. 

The other side of stress is how our home became where we wanted to be for decades. 

Creating moments of laughter, music and joyful surprises became part of every day. 

Then there is that part of life that comes when the best laid plans go to plan B. 

While things do come up and happen often, learning how to deal with them alongside others may be the key. 

It has been for me. I found that looking at the possible next steps with another’s perspective has helped do even more than deal with what plops in front of me. 

That is where the joy has come many times.

That is where the joy has come many times. 

Finally, looking at each day with gratitude became a key. 

Now, I will say that this came over time. 

Some of the time I was grateful for the sunshine. Other times it was looking up to see spring blossoms. 

Then, it was a row of flowers that I was grateful for as I walked alongside them with our son. 

This became part of life when I paused for every blooming thing summer after summer. 

It was for one year that I found that becoming grateful was when joy as an act of resistance became more powerful. 

I learned that while I couldn’t control what was happening in the medical realm to our son, I could control the joy that I brought in every time the sun popped into our home. 

The attitude I brought into his room each day could be what I showed him with pure love and joy.

This resistance may have been a small step in the face of what was happening at the time. 

Indeed, it did not have a lasting imprint on his doctors or his medical outcome. No, grief still came to our home.

What it did do was change our trajectory by bringing joy to every moment we had in this world with our grand, beloved son. 

It did bring joyful resistance to the life he led with laughter, music and even more joy. Even now, I can feel the lasting effects of what this brought to us. 

What I now know is that while joy can feel like an act of resistance it can also become what each person does to counterbalance the stress and daily unknowns. 

May we do it together often.