Well, when I signed up to write an article about “joy” last July I figured it would be easy because there was so much joy floating around.  We had just returned from two glorious getaways to Italy, Germany and Switzerland. So much beauty. So many good people we shared our time with. Our kids were both happily employed and the depth of the summer was upon us.

Fast forward to April 2025.  I’m struggling with the emotion of joy. It’s an emotion and a state of mind. I read that joy is supposed to be fleeting, something that you experience and release.  I naively thought it was something that I could easily conjure up by focusing on what was in front of me. Yes, these days when I focus on what is in front of me, I find myself doom scrolling. Full of other emotions like anger, fear, resentment, disbelief and powerlessness. Those don’t align with joy. Or said another way, those current emotions tend to crowd-out joy. Plus, the employment status of our adult children has changed. That was unexpected.

Yet, I know, if I let the daily angry chaos that’s being promoted crowd out my joy, then I’ve allowed an important part of me to be overtaken. In the 1990’s, I took some courses on internal self-reflection and one topic was to focus on, “why I’m here?” “what’s my reason for being?”  I worked at it and came up with a mantra:  I am Joy and Personal Empowerment.  I genuinely love to share joy and laughter and to help people recognize their own empowerment. It has served me well.

Now, I need to make another pact with myself to keep driving on that road. Things in our country and the world are looking very different and many more changes are coming. Some might even be good. But, each day I want to commit to look for the beauty in nature, the beauty in people, the beauty in the stars and to find joy. Four weeks ago, Charity Dachelet and I agreed to start a simple protest in Wayzata.  We felt like it was at least doing something instead of that dreadful feeling of powerlessness. 

Last week, there was a moment of unexpected joy.  A father and three kids were in a car with their windows down and they were actively paying attention to our signs and what we were saying. I have to admit I was shouting things like, “We The People,” because many drivers had their windows down. The young girl in the car asked her dad to stop and see if she could join our little protest.  We said, “sure, everyone is welcome”.  She got out of the car, marched into a nearby sandwich shop, and asked if they had a marker and some cardboard. They did. She created her own protest sign and joined us. She’s in 4th grade. That sparked joy.  I loved her clear sense of “personal empowerment”. While protesting, I’m always taken aback by the unexpected ugliness from people who don’t know me, but we do see and experience unexpected joys too.

The other unexpected joy from just last weekend was a gift my daughter gave me for my Birthday. She bought us tickets to “Puppy Yoga.”  Yeah, it’s a real thing.  What could be more wonderful than being in a room with 20 people doing yoga amongst 8 adorable puppies. With that, I figured I had an image for this article and to remind myself and perhaps you, to keep looking for joy.

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Back in the day, I used to write a list of three things I was grateful for every day. I think I’m going to take that up again and look for three unexpected joyful experiences every day. I’ll start small and hopefully go big: I find joy in getting Wordle in two tries; in the unexpected treasures on Antiques RoadShow; in getting a high score word in Words with Friends (Bev and Jackie Z usually beat me); and adding that unexpected ingredient that raised the flavor of a dish; the genuine smile of grocery clerk; the warm hellos from the peeps at UUCM. 

Just as Rev. Lisa requested in her Midweek Message on Joy on April 2, we are both interested in collecting unexpected sparks of joy which you experience, and we’ll cultivate a list to share. Joy shared is joy multiplied.

Trust is important for all of us. Trust is part of what allows us to feel more comfortable with other people, agencies, our doctors, our therapists, our families and friends. 

For me, I have trust in my UU faith. I trust that the UU Association will be able to use their collective strength to act in accord with my values. For instance, now I am very concerned about the safety of trans folx, immigrants, and disabled people who rely on Medicaid, SNAP benefits, federal housing, etc. In the recent UU World, they wrote that “The Unitarian Universalist Association joined more than two dozen Christian and Jewish religious denominations and associations on February 11 in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s new policy that allows immigration raids, arrests, and other enforcement actions at houses of worship.” 

Trust is part of what has been shattered by what the current administration is doing. We trust that the government will take care of the elderly, the disabled, the unhoused, veterans, etc. However, currently the administration is taking away our trust in those safety nets and systems. 

That is what is making us feel anxiety and a feeling like the ground is shaking beneath our feet. When trust is broken, it makes us feel uneasy at best and panicky at worst. We don’t know what could be next and we seek answers. However, when we don’t have trust, it is hard for us to know what might be next. We need assurance that the ground will always be beneath our feet. 

When our trust is broken, as in relationships, we search for someone, something or someplace that helps us feel grounded again. For me and many people, this is where religion comes into play. UUCM has been that place for me for over a decade. The community, the people, the values, the music, and the vision have given me that feeling of trust. I know that I can trust that we will follow the UU principles and allows me to feel the ground under my feet again.