Word of the year: joy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It feels audacious to say it aloud.
I\u2019ve chosen \u201cjoy\u201d for 2024.
Audacious and more than a bit of \u201chave you just woken? Have you not been reading the room?\u201d.
But that\u2019s precisely it, isn\u2019t it?
Twitter. Palestine. Ukraine. The CCP. Climate change. Famine. Extreme weather.
I could\u2019ve chosen \u201cease\u201d or \u201crelease\u201d or \u201cforgiveness (for myself)\u201d, but in the end I decided to go with the valiance of choosing joy.
I prefer \u201cjoy\u201d to \u201cgratitude\u201d.
Not because gratitude is bad, but because I\u2019m tired of millionaires telling me I should be grateful they haven\u2019t found a way to charge for oxygen yet.
I\u2019m tired of misogynists telling me I should be grateful they find my tits hot even as they find my mind decidedly not.
I\u2019m tired of all the ways in which privileged people weaponize \u201cgratitude\u201d against us, but I\u2019m going to skip the tirade (for now) because this is about joy.
About choosing joy.
I recently discovered I was sunk deep in depression masquerading as optimism.
I was making do, living in a mess, awaiting a better tomorrow.
\u201cI\u2019ll buy the absolute right storage solutions when I move out and have my own place, so it will be perfect for both my chosen style of decor and the exact right size to fit in with every other thing that I will so carefully choose.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019ll get back to daily yoga when I have room to myself again, when I have a place to put down my yoga mat.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019ll forgive myself tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, some day when I\u2019m somehow magically persuaded (by someone else, probably) that I\u2019m worthy of love.\u201d
\u2026
All those terrible things I told myself, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well.
Enough of that.
It\u2019s 2024.
We\u2019re choosing joy.
Despite war.
Despite climate change.
Despite billionaires willfully wrecking the world just because they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because capitalism doesn\u2019t work without our misery.
Because joy is the first thing They want to take from us.
Because I find footholds and crags to hold onto, through joy.
Because I find joy in ease, in release, in all the other choices I could see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May we walk forward, together, in joy, through joy, towards joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Word of the year: joy It feels audacious to say it aloud.I\u2019ve chosen \u201cjoy\u201d for 2024.Audacious and more than a bit of \u201chave you just woken? Have you not been reading the room?\u201d.But that\u2019s precisely it, isn\u2019t it?Twitter. Palestine. Ukraine. The CCP. Climate change. Famine. Extreme weather.I could\u2019ve chosen \u201cease\u201d or \u201crelease\u201d or \u201cforgiveness (for… Continue reading