semi-sweets for the sweet

When the glass is so clear I can see every swirl and eddy in the water, I am sure of myself. I am calm. I am not fretting over pointless worries.

When the glass is clear, the words come easily. There are things to share and things to say and a good way to say them.

There were so many gifts of that kind of clarity throughout the joy experiment.


Some of my favorites:
This one from Bzzzzgrrrl--- a small little bit of feathered joy, a surprise and a delight.
This one from Hannah--- I love how she put so much thought into something I lobbed out into the universe, forming an equally thought-provoking response.
This one from Alicia--- raw, honest, brave, insightful, and she really digs deep to find joy in the darkest place.

I got an email yesterday afternoon from a friend that had me closing my eyes, giving thanks for her careful response. For your reading pleasure, the very sweet Anonymous:



I have found joy in realizing that I'm not who I used to be. In many ways, I'm better in spite of the things I'm dealing with and perhaps because of the things I'm dealing with. Progress in myself encourages and inspires me. I'm learning that I can be calm in the midst of a storm. I'm learning (again-- how many times have I learned this lesson? How many times will I have to keep learning it?) that although a lot of mortality involves suffering, pain, great discomfort, tragedy, and similar emotions I don't even know the names of, these can all be lessened with love. With surrounding myself with creature comforts. With being gentle with myself and reaching out in love and gentleness to people around me. And the love, comfort, gentleness, and connections with other people all help me to keep moving through the pain of being human.

You wrote about cemeteries and the relationship between joy and sorrow, darkness and light. And you expressed beautifully things I've thought about myself. There have been many times in my life that have taught me that joy is not all sweetness, happiness, hearts-and-flowers. Noooo. There's an edge to it. It's not milk chocolate; it's dark chocolate. But just as I prefer the lingering complexity of dark chocolate in my mouth, I'd rather have the complexity of joy in my life than just plain milky sweetness. There's some truth missing if all I get is the sweet, and as sadistic as it seems at times, I'd rather have truth with pain than no pain and partial truth.



There is wisdom here, and also a chocolate metaphor (much better than my weird food metaphor from yesterday). That's a total win in my book.

Which also means that my sweet Anonymous is the winner of my favorite post---- (I'm bending my own rules because I can). So she will be receiving a Whimsy Care Package (should we trademark that phrase?).

Thank you all, again, for playing and for being willing to follow me (again) off the edge. Here's to a weekend of dark chocolate wonder.