Joy Not Shared, Dies Young

Share your joy in defense of Democracy this weekend

Like so many others I will be joyfully participating in the “No Kings” protest this weekend, joining with like-minded people to defend the Democracy we love and have fought so hard to maintain through these past 250 years. We know that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and others like them who fought and died to create and defend what we have today, if still alive, would be standing there with us.

But when we aren’t standing in protest, when there is so much going on in the world that makes us grieve, we must be careful not to lose heart, and to remember that taking joy in the everyday is a form of protest too.

So I’m sharing this lovely reminder from poet Anne Sexton to share our joys—the simple pleasures of life. Along with that, I’m sharing these photos of our flowering flowering plum tree that brings me so much pleasure every year. Enjoy!

Welcome Morning

There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry “hello there, Anne”
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.

All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,
dies young.

By Anne Sexton