The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. -John 1:5.
I guess it goes without saying that it can be hard to find the good stuff amidst all the bad going on right now. We’re holed up, we can’t work or socialize or worship in person. We may not have a paycheck coming in. We are isolated, we worry about our loved ones.
A few days ago, I heard on NPR a timely “encore” interview with Ross Gay, a poet, professor, and author of “The Book of Delights”. I haven’t read the book, but I’ve just ordered it from our local bookstore.
Starting on his 42nd birthday, Ross Gay wrote an essay every day for a year about something he found delightful, such as receiving a high-five from a stranger, umbrellas, coffee, his cat, and hummingbirds.
Looking for and recording things for which we are grateful every day is known to benefit us all psychologically, and, I would add, spiritually. Gay in fact states that writing about delight made him more aware of delight: “And then, like, couple of weeks in - maybe a month or so in, I started to be, like, … that was delightful. That was delightful. That was delightful … so like, accumulating all of these, you know? … Like, my sort of attention got cultivated.”
Ross Gay started writing these essays in the fall of 2016. And we all know what was going on then – the Presidential election, inauguration, and all that was to follow, which prompted the interviewer to comment: “I can imagine those huge events in the news that were so dominating so much of our attention might not have caused you a lot of delight.” The author responds: “Oh, God. Yeah, exactly… you can… get completely floored. And I think it's an interesting tension to be like, I'm trying. I'm trying to keep the light. Like, this is my focus right now. This is my discipline.” I loved that: trying to keep the light, which is such a lovely poetic phrase.
So, I’m going to give it a try. Try to see the light in all this tension. I will make it my discipline. And I will write about it.
Stay well.
See the full interview with Ross Gay here.