“Joy” by Tamara Magnitsky
Wow! Does that photo say Joy or what?! What a perfect way to kick off the week and to introduce you to a marvelous new feature on Bliss Habits. My dear friend Tamara, who has been honing her incredible photographic eye over her lifetime and more recently in a concentrated study, has agreed to take and share a representative photo for each of our Bliss Habits. Here, she has captured her daughter at the height of heart bursting delight! I don’t know about you but just looking at this photo makes me happy!
Tamara’s wonderful photos are just one of the new regular features you can expect here at Bliss Habits. To help kick start each week January Handl will be sharing a poem that evokes the weekly habit. I find it both interesting and marvelous that my two artists, without ever speaking or meeting have come up with incredibly complimentary works.
Watching Jonah learn to skip
by January Handl
He calls over to me,
this earnest scientist
who, at three years old
finds mystery and humor
Everywhere
“Watch this”
and begins the complicated
mosaic of electrical impulse
Experience
Will
Attention
that moves his organic
hardware through the soup of
gravity and circumstance
with hops and bumps and jumps
He gestures toward his
seemingly independent- thinking knees
with a look of admiration
and joy
illuminating his open face
“Do you want to see that again?”
his impossibly wide
smile re-ignites
my own smile
my own wonder
at the body that carries us
through this existence
So joyful! Thank you January.
This photo, this poem. Joy is rising. Can you feel it?
When I first started the Bliss Habits project in my own life, I would start each week collecting a few ideas, which I call “Bliss Initiatives” that were designed to get me in the mood for and immediately practicing my Bliss Habits. Somehow over the course of developing this blog, I stopped doing this and things started to get a lot more theoretical and less about cultivating actual bliss.
With Tamara and January’s help I am hoping to reverse this trend. Every Monday we will set the stage for the habit of the week. Encouraging, I hope, some actual bliss and setting a foundation for the habit of delight!
The poetry and photos each week, will help us get in the mood. Causing us to pause and reflect a bit and experience a moment of Bliss. The Bliss Initiatives I choose to explore will help us to dig right in proactively cultivate the habits we are exploring. They are designed to be things that anyone could do, if you want to play along with me. However, because as Earl Nightingale says, “you become what you think about,” even if you only follow along, and never take on any of the bliss initiatives, I expect some positive results.
This week’s Bliss Initiative: Create a Joy Music Library
Tamara, may be laughing at me for this! She has been telling me for years that music is an area of life to which I should pay attention. I suppose I am a slow learner however when I think of a couple of my favorite Joy inducing songs I do feel the joy!
Recently Lisa Faulkner one of our Bliss Habits guest bloggers (From Blunder to Wonder and a Surprise for Two in Moorea) posed the question “What’s your joy song?” and even invited her readers to add to her itunes or spotify playlists by the same name.
Music has the power to evoke strong feelings and reactions so use this power. to increase joy in your life. Put together a CD or ipod play list of music that makes you happy. Gather this array of songs and keep it handy for when ever you need a little jolt of joy. The entire process of collecting a joy library will in itself produce a lot of joy.
The Spirituality and Practice website offers a whole list of Joy inducing music which might help get you started. Searching on the key words happy and joy in You Tube will also net you numerous offerings.
Here is one from my personal list: Joy of Life by the Corrs
Alrighty then, you have your JOY homework, if you’ve decided to play along. Please let us know in a comment if you are putting together your own joy song list and/or make me a recommendation for mine! And while your down there, please welcome Tamara and January to the Bliss Habits family. I think we are in for a marvelous time together!
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Tamara Magnisky
Tamara Magnitsky, a child of the wild blue yonder,
has been an ardent student and advocate for poetry, photography and excellence in general.
She is the mother of a 6 year old daughter and a beloved wife.
She can be found most days.
Bio written by Cary Brosius ~Tamara’s husband 🙂
January Handl
January Handl is first and always a mother, has been a preschool teacher and parent educator for 25 years, and currently is an early head start home visitor in her community. She resides with 2 dogs and a cat in Boulder Creek and and simply lives in awe of existence.
She calls her photo “hot tub bliss” 🙂
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So absolutely joyFULL! Tamara and January – you create lovely art. Please, keep sharing that with the world! I’m excited to continue to watch Kathy’s site and see what you offer…
And Kathy – I Love the joyful music library. I definitely have those “go-to” songs…time to put them in one place and do a happy dance! 🙂
Absolutely beautiful photos-music and poetry. My heart is lifted!
Thankyou!
Lovely! And like Linda, my heart is lifted!
Hi Kathy or Kaki as I am affectionately used to calling you! I love the article “Are You Demanding Enough Joy?.” It is a wake up call to stop being wishy washy and to realize one’s Joy generating capabilities! It is an easy step to take to go from dis-satisfied to “not that bad” and then you illustrate how to go from “not that bad” to joyful. Stepping stones leading to Joy!
Kathy, I love that photo! I have a couple similar ones (though not nearly as professional) of my son. One he is in the middle of throwing a snowball and has a look of pure glee (he knows the snowball will hit his target!). And I LOVE the song you shared (and so far, can’t find it on itunes – must buy it!).
One of my favorite joy tunes is “Joy” by George Winston. And I love hearing “Hallelujah/Shrek Song” as sung by Espen Lind, Askil Holm, Alejandro Fuentes, Kurt Nilsen(World Idol) – find it on YouTube.