A Little Joy + Creativity Is Enough

We’re nearly done with the first month of 2023 and I think I’ve finally settled on the words that will guide and define me and my work (read: life) for the coming year.

Joy. Creativity. Sufficiency.

The last 12 months have been difficult but they’ve also been fruitful. I’ve gained some things and lost others - I’ve excelled in some ways and failed miserably, too. But as I’ve begun to whet my toes in the waters of what will be in 2023, it is joy that buoys and bolsters me.

Not happiness. Joy.

To me, joy is the older, bigger, and much stronger sister of happiness. It isn’t dependent on circumstance or opportunity. Or luck.

It assumes that there is light even in dark corners. It insists that there is value, even in privation. It builds the reason or rhyme it requires to keep singing. It uproots from the earth the very rhythm it needs to dance.

Joy is a perspective that asks “if not here, then where?” It is curious and creative by its very nature.

I plan to lean on it in the coming year. I will let it lead my creative endeavors, in my music and elsewhere.

And I trust that it will be enough.

Joy. Creativity. Sufficiency.