Causes of Joy

Yesterday, in writing group, one of our prompts was "joy." I had just read my daily email from the Cloud Appreciation Society, which quoted a research paper on tears of joy. 

Research shows there are four main causes for joyful tears: beauty, achievement, affection, and amusement.

Achievement tears are often shed in contexts of extraordinary performance or when someone overcomes an obstacle and often include feelings of pride. 

Beauty tears occur commonly in situations of overwhelming elegance or beauty, including nature, music or visual arts, and feature feelings of awe or experiencing chills. 

Affectionate tears are often experienced in situations including unexpected kindness or exceptional love such as wedding ceremonies or reunions and often feature feelings of warmth, increased communality, and feeling touched or compassionate. 

Finally, amusement tears are shed when something especially funny occurs and include feelings of amusement or lightness and the inclination to laugh or giggle. 

No matter the cause of joy, give yourself over to it. To paraphrase:

Be joyful unto Life! Serve Life with gladness. Come into Presence and recognize joy.

Gladness is one synonym for joy. Appreciation is another.

Citation: ‘A Model of Positive Tears’, Janis Zickfeld et al., published in PsyArXiv Preprints 08 November 2020. 

Snow on Daffodils

The earliest daffodils were snowed upon 2 weeks ago, so they remain bent over. They bloom facing the ground instead of the sky.

It doesn't seem fair when people's bodies are prematurely disabled, perhaps from birth, perhaps from an early accident or disease. Some people die well before what we think of as an allotted lifespan.

My neighbor's son has been disabled from birth. That doesn't stop him from fully enjoying his life. One of the great programs our community offers is the Theater Adventure program. (Watch a YouTube here.) Every time i go to one of their productions, my heart swells with the love and care these people have for each other and a few tears come to my eyes.

Some flowers are bent over from an early age, and only a few people notice them.

Still Raining

It's still raining. After 3 days, the soil is finally soaked. It's time to transplant anything, everything so that it can settle into its new home.

After we have shed enough tears about a loved one or a particular situation, the realization finally soaks in: It's time to transplant ourselves into a new relationship with this dear one--perhaps one of greater distance.

We can still grow love, even from a distance.

Tears of Joy

I took one of my almost-blooming hyacinths to the receptionist in a windowless office yesterday. She was so grateful that tears sprang to her eyes.

Tears like that are tears of joy.

Gift given--from the heart.
Gift received--in the heart.