Tag Archives: joy

Substitute Writer: Autumn Christian

This week’s been rough. I’d like to share one of my all-time favorite essays with you. It’s called “The Routine Boredom of Misery,” and it’s about joy. Normally I would put an excerpt here to entice you, but I can’t pick just one part. Believe me, I’ve tried. Every sentence of this thing carries weight; every paragraphs leans on the ones before and after it for support; every point builds on what’s already been said while simultaneously setting up what comes next. Just read the whole thing, it’s not that long.

Then, if you like it, read some more!

Joy and health to all of you.

Leave a comment

Filed under Essays, Microblogging, Reviews

Practice Radical Kindness and Senseless Acts of Joy

Because there is no act more courageous, nor weapon more powerful, nor philosophy more brazen, than that of loving fully.

I am so glad you’re here.

Leave a comment

Filed under Essays, Microblogging

My Top Ten Rains

“Rain is a very special blessing,” my mother says. Even when I was little, she’d already been saying it to my sister and me for as long as I could remember. Just as my grandmother had said it to her, when my mother was not my mother but only herself, in the dry Texas summers of her own childhood. Eons ago and continents away, as children reckon these things.

10

It’s summer now. It’s been cloudy all day, but they wait until the thunder starts to clear out the pool.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Essays, My Life, Poetry, Reviews

Class, We Have A Substitute for Today

Running low on spoons at the moment. I was going to have my “comments are back” announcement be today’s post, but then Chris Ferdinandi, one of my favorite bloggers, wrote a post about “Spreading Joy” and I had to share. Here’s an excerpt:

Yesterday, I found myself being extra friendly even when the guy behind the deli counter at the market was standoffish at the start.

He opened up eventually.

I told a woman I loved her anchor-pattern dress (because I love anchors and really did!), and found out she was headed to a wedding on a boat that afternoon, and was there to pick up a cake!

I’ve gotten so jaded and angry (because there’s a lot to be angry at) that I’d kind of forgotten how to have real, genuine joy.

It was a good reminder that I need to hold on to that, because fascism hates joy and spreading it is anti-fasc.

There’s lots more great reads on his daily developer tips page. Most of them are programming-related, but quite a few of them (like this one) aren’t. Go check it out!

Leave a comment

Filed under Reviews