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Things that bring me joy....

Started by West of the Rockies, July 19, 2013, 03:21:12 PM

My daughter and I often go out for "the batting hour" when bats begin their nightly forays.  I wish we had lightning bugs.  Here in California, I've never seen them.  I think it's a midwest thing.  I've also never seen the Aurora Borealis.  It's on my  bucket list.


Neat story, FtF!  There was an X-Files episode a bit like that once....

Oh, something else that brings me joy?  Tiger Woods is struggling in yet another major.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

HorrorRetro

Quote from: West of the Rockies on August 08, 2013, 12:44:42 PM
My daughter and I often go out for "the batting hour" when bats begin their nightly forays.  I wish we had lightning bugs.  Here in California, I've never seen them.  I think it's a midwest thing.  I've also never seen the Aurora Borealis.  It's on my  bucket list.

No lightning bugs here either.  We'd see them a lot when we lived down in Oklahoma.  Having been born and raised in Alaska, I have seen the northern lights many times.  Here in WA state, they've been showing up pretty regularly.  There are some nice shots here:  http://www.komonews.com/weather/blogs/scott/Northern-Lights-dazzle-parts-of-Puget-Sound-skies-209770541.html

Usagi

My little jerk’s smile and his “hyuk hyuk” laugh

Coffee and a sunny morning

A glass of wine or a bottle of beer and a sunset

A blanket, a comfy seat, and the night sky

Hearing a song I forgot I liked

Road trips, large or small

Mountains and the ocean, preferably together

Campfires

A really good joke

An excellent meal

Really getting into a book or tv show

Those are the ones that popped in my head, anway…

To be perfectly honest, while joy is obviously great, there is a twinge of sadness that goes with it, even if just slightly under the surface.  Joy is a powerful emotion that is often elicited by a rare moment - something you know won’t last forever.  Maybe that’s just me.  Personally, I’m rather fond of things that make me feel “content” if not “joyful” per se. 

Sardondi

Quote from: Usagi on August 08, 2013, 01:35:00 PM...To be perfectly honest, while joy is obviously great, there is a twinge of sadness that goes with it, even if just slightly under the surface.  Joy is a powerful emotion that is often elicited by a rare moment - something you know won’t last forever.  Maybe that’s just me.  Personally, I’m rather fond of things that make me feel “content” if not “joyful” per se.
Insightful. And not to be hopelessly sentimental, saccharine or precious, but the only way we can really know joy is also to have experienced great sadness. And "contentment" or "satisfaction" is indeed the state which we should seek to attain, since "joy" is like trying to stay drunk all the time - it just doesn't work that way.

Watching my kid grow up to be a good man

Our crazy husky who looks and howls like a timberwolf

Dramatic thunder and lightening storms

The sky

Seeing the moon when I'm leaving for work

Watching the sun rise/set

Wine and plain old cold Coor's Light

Growing vegatables and herbs (heh, heh, the eating kind)

Canning my stuff

Birds: robins, crows, sparrows. Watching generations of sparrows inherit the meganest I refuse to take down.

Good science fiction novels, and watching good tv shows all at once.

That look on a kid's face when he realizes he can read for the first time.

Kids who graduate and come back to give me a kind of shy hug. 

mv, your daughter is adorable! Treasure the moments not because they go so fast, but because kids are a trip.

Eddie Coyle


       The gateway of...

     10AM  "hard" lemonade
     12PM  Ice Beers
     2PM    Whiskey

stevesh

Quote from: Sardondi on August 08, 2013, 03:05:38 PM
... since "joy" is like trying to stay drunk all the time - it just doesn't work that way.

Working so far. I'll get back to you.

jazmunda

The wisdom of my nearly 5 year old who asks questions like:

"Is the wind the world breathing?"

and

"If you don't sleep with your glasses on how do you see properly in your dreams?"

Chine

Smell of turpentine as I paint.

Romps in the park with the dogs.

Relentless storms.

Morning newspaper crinkling.

MST3K.

Psychedelic Furs vinyls.

Breakfast for dinner.  Old Books.

Harmness

Young horses and new country.

Rain.

sleeplessinca

So many things bring joy...
All are better with someone you love.  That goes without saying.

Sport-sy stuff...
Snorkling in the rain and realizing the fish don't even know there's a difference
Coasting down a hill on your bike especially if there is a traffic jam
Getting back in shape after a lay-up (or lazy spell)
Training for a show and placing well

Glowy stuff...
Fireflies - we don't have them in CA but do in my motherland of Manitoba. They are worth seeing

The beach at night (here on the west coast) because if you hit it right, The waves glow in the dark, the sand glows where you step and sparkles if you kick it. 

Sailing at night because you can see the jellyfish and plankton glow in the water

Natural stuff...
Long views from tops of mountains
Seeing rainbows anywhere - especially in weird places like in the fog blowing by right over your head or in the mist that blows back off the top of waves
A really good meteor shower
A balmy evening after a really hot day
Wildflowers in spring
Mushrooms (just to look at - honest)
Eating tomatoes or apricots you grew yourself warm and ripe from the sun
Watching flocks of blackbirds fly as a big sky creature
Wild birds in general
Budgies talking

Art and music
Anything that touches your heart or gets you going and feeling good

Of course there's more.  Reading and writing down stuff like this feels real good.




aldousburbank

Seeing my 9 year old boy act like a 9 year old boy. While every stick is a weapon every puppy and kitty is his bud and he is their protector.

Chine

Quote from: aldousburbank on September 12, 2013, 06:54:32 PM
Seeing my 9 year old boy act like a 9 year old boy. While every stick is a weapon every puppy and kitty is his bud and he is their protector.

Beautiful.

ksm32

Sitting with my wife in my front yard seating area (our own little park) the fresh cut grass and all the many flowers we plant every year as we plan our colour scheme year to year, all the little old folks who walk by saying "another great year folks, good job"...
then the small very pleasant chat that ensues. I love this so much because I look like Slash / Conan the Barbarian, and yet they like me.

Cooking with my wife too, that's great, it can save a marriage, we do it every Sunday. I make the best osso buco you have ever tasted.

ksm32

Quote from: Usagi on August 08, 2013, 01:35:00 PM

To be perfectly honest, while joy is obviously great, there is a twinge of sadness that goes with it, even if just slightly under the surface.  Joy is a powerful emotion that is often elicited by a rare moment - something you know won’t last forever.  Maybe that’s just me.  Personally, I’m rather fond of things that make me feel “content” if not “joyful” per se.

That should be carved in stone.


I was spinning my radio dial last night (here in northern California) and found a station from Boise, Idaho.  I very much enjoy hearing distant stations come in clearly at night.  I am happy that The Farmers' Almanac is still in print.  I sent off for an Edmund Scientific Supply catalog recently -- love those.  I feel like I'm 13 again.

Time goes by so fast.  What we think is ours forever can be gone in the blink of an eye.  Love your treasures while they are with you.

aldousburbank

Mr. West, your post brought me some.

Heather Wade

My cat Creepy.  Everything is a toy to her, and anytime is time to play.

This is very un-pc, but a triple espresso & a smoke in the morning is a slice of heaven.

Anticipation.  Especially now, counting down the hours to an event... gives me a smile.

I've heard it said, "Never be content, always strive for more."  However, I find striving for contentment rather than "more" brings the most joy. 

Of course, since I'm ocd, being clean! Ah! To sit down in my freshly cleaned home, pure joy!

The Fall. The Winter. Storms, rain, cold weather... being cozy, warm, with the smell of bacon potato soup & bread filling the house.


Thank you, Aldous.  Do you like old-school periodicals & such, too?  (I loved finding a bunch of old Popular Mechanics & Popular Science magazines at a thrift store.  Reading a build-your-own-hovercraft article is such silly fun.)

I'm with you, Redacted -- soup, warm bread, a clean house... maybe throw in a good book or a rousing game of Scrabble:  I'm in hog heaven!

Heather Wade

Quote from: West of the Rockies on September 14, 2013, 05:48:10 PM
Thank you, Aldous.  Do you like old-school periodicals & such, too?  (I loved finding a bunch of old Popular Mechanics & Popular Science magazines at a thrift store.  Reading a build-your-own-hovercraft article is such silly fun.)

I'm with you, Redacted -- soup, warm bread, a clean house... maybe throw in a good book or a rousing game of Scrabble:  I'm in hog heaven!

...and wait for Dark Matter to come on!

Chine

Books. Heavy books. No Kindle here. I desire the tactile sensation of pressing back a corner of a page to remind where I stopped. Older the better, where the color of paper turns ochre. Leather bounds too, scratched with character.

Bookstores. Small ones where I lived in the West Village in NYC. Filled with writers who write in bars on cocktail napkins. Ink wells. Art of penmanship. Stacks of Sam Shepards plays. I've met him. What a beautiful man, too. Jotting notes on the back of envelopes or scripts in rehearsal. Poetry readings in St. Marks and the East Village. Stories begging to be born as you observe passersby. Cracked photographs of strangers in an antique store in Jerome Arizona you can purchase for 25 cents.

aldousburbank

I love flea market/thrift store periodical shopping. It's the first section I head to. Smithsonian, Pop Mech, Nat Geo, AZ Hwys- I'm a sucker for these. Love old Creem Mag, lost my collection in the great flood of '83.

real mocha java in my morning cup
single malt scotch,  neat
single malt Irish, neat and sometimes in my coffee
listening to Art on Saturday nights
listening to Z and his Blues program o WFIT on Friday nights
having my 7 yr old grand-niece tell me about her rock  hunting
receiving my orders from nuts.com and/or Vitacost
Reading or watching anything Sci Fi, Archaeology, History, Astronomy, Tesla, Agronomy, Steiner, Aircraft, ~~~~~~
growing plants  with seed from something I have just ate
baking bread
corn bread and some lady finger field peas
sea food gumbo (rare now that the gulf  seafood has corexit and the pacific is radioactive)
chicken gumbo
tinkering with projects~~~~~~
listening to classical music



Sardondi

Quote from: Chine on September 14, 2013, 08:49:38 PM
Books. Heavy books. No Kindle here. I desire the tactile sensation of pressing back a corner of a page to remind where I stopped. Older the better, where the color of paper turns ochre. Leather bounds too, scratched with character.

Bookstores. Small ones where I lived in the West Village in NYC. Filled with writers who write in bars on cocktail napkins. Ink wells. Art of penmanship. Stacks of Sam Shepards plays. I've met him. What a beautiful man, too. Jotting notes on the back of envelopes or scripts in rehearsal. Poetry readings in St. Marks and the East Village. Stories begging to be born as you observe passersby. Cracked photographs of strangers in an antique store in Jerome Arizona you can purchase for 25 cents.
Oh, yeah. This is pr0n to me. When I think of books, I think of fiction, even though as I age I find myself reading more and more history and biography. Still, fiction is the top. In a (different?) thread recently we discussed the pleasure that the physicality of books can give, and the dismay many of us feel at those of our family, friends and acquaintances who lead bookless lives; lives bereft even of anything more taxing than online reading. It seems to me that many Millennials do no reading beyond bits of txt or postings to social media. It's sad, and bodes ill.

Forget the pleasure of reading, and the education about the human mind, heart and spirit that one deprives oneself of in not reading, and reading primarily fiction. Those who do not read, and read for pleasure, in long, leisurely lumps of time, run a very high risk of cheating themselves of much more than just an attention span capable of tackling text more daunting than the back of a cereal box: they are stealing from themselves not just a mature attention span, but the ability to think deeply, in multiple levels and along alternate though simultaneous paths.

aldousburbank

The human female form. Especially as represented by my cute wife. (She may read this some day)

Grov505th

 Driving around at dusk in my 1945 Ford GPW (Jeep) with my wife and hear her yell "Deer" when she sees them in the fields.
Fireflies in the back yard at night, brings back memories of catching them in my grandpa's yard.
The musty smell of old military canvas gear and finding that one piece that you have been searching for years.
The "The All Clear" Siren after a rocket attack, she had a lovely british accent (google Khandar AF Rocket Attack Alarm)
Not being in Khandar AF..... watch this:  Kandahar the Song


Hey Grov, that was pretty awesome. Lots of good people there, lots of stories. I hope you are back in the US now?


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