Life, and the joy you make it

Guess where I’m going? Back to the spaces I love under the Big Sky. My college roommate, Shelley Dilbeck, and I are having a three-day reunion in Red Lodge, Montana, so I’ll be gone for a few days (try not to miss me).

Here we are circa 1981 as freshman at Cottey College. Since then, we’ve each had three children, some moments of despair and incredible joy. And we’ve learned some very important lessons—like not to wear horizontal stripes.

I’ve been thinking a lot these days about the things that last…friendships, marriages, businesses, colleges, churches, tribes of men and varieties of crops. It seems they all have some things in common. So today, I’ll offer a few of the elements I think are key to the survival of anything—whether you’re surviving a difficult stage in your business life cycle or working through a tough time in a relationship. I hope you’ll respond with all the things I miss.

First and foremost—humor. If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re in trouble. If you take yourself so seriously that you actually think the things that happen in your life happen to you specifically, and you are the victim of everything beyond your control, you’re in trouble. So find some good reasons to laugh at yourself. And let others laugh at you, too. Laughter can’t hurt you and it can help a lot!

Creativity. When life offers challenges, some people curl up in the aforementioned victim ball. They live out their days in a litany of complaints and target everyone from the government to their mother and their fifth grade teacher for their issues. Other people couple their good humor with a little creativity and they give us all something to enjoy—like this quilt shop in Washoe.
If you Google Washoe, Montana, the first reference that pops us is to its status as a ghost town. I’m not sure about you, but nothing in that speaks to me of thriving community. However, when you pass by Washoe on Hwy 308 on your way to Bearcreek (home of the famous pig races!) you will see that the lone business there is The Washoe Quilt Shoppe. If you look a little closer, you’ll see that the circular driveway in front of the shop is not just  a driveway, it’s the Washoe Business Loop. The green street markers indicate the beginning and end of the loop. If you’re speeding by at 80 mph, you might miss it, but that’s also a good indication you don’t have the patience to quilt anyway.
Other businesses may have decided a location on a highway with ghosts as neighbors posed too many obstacles to success. But with a little creativity and good humor, the Washoe Quilt Shoppe created a unique business approach and an opportunity for passers by like me to laugh out loud. Thank you for that!

Creativity enables you to find ways to make your circumstances work for you. Maybe your joblessness leads you to a new career, or the time between contracts give you time to take the hikes you’ve put on hold. Maybe the end of a product line or brand leads you to listen more carefully to your customers and you find a way to fulfill an unmet need. Whatever desperate times or endings present themselves, just remember, they’re not the end of you. Find a new way to look at it, or call a friend to have a look/see at your options from a new perspective. The end is often just a place to turn around.

Tenacity. My niece Erin reminded me of one of my favorite lines from a movie, “Keep on swimmin!’” Dory, in Little Nemo, didn’t just keep swimmin’ she sang as she swam and she found life around her to be a delight—in part because every experience was a new and fresh one thanks to her short term memory issues. (Can you see why I relate so well?!) When I was having rough days at work, I would actually flap my arms as if they were fins propelling me down the narrow hallway to my office. I was not about to let my spirits sink.

There are times in our lives we just get through. Incredibly difficult times for many of you. Yet, when you look back, you can see that there was a lesson, a moment of beauty, a tiny fragment of hope born amidst those difficulties. It is surprising what beauty we find in the least expected places where all evidence would point to only the contrary being possible. Hang on! Show them it can be done.

Joy. In every circumstance, joy can creep in and bubble up. Unless you are clinging to your woes, you can feel joy’s presence surprise you on the days you least anticipate its arrival.

My sister Sharon just returned from a visit to Kenya. The drought in Kenya is beyond my comprehension. I can’t imagine a four-day water supply delivered by a truck every seven days. I can’t imagine drinking, bathing and doing my laundry in the same muddy river. Sharon has stories of this last visit to Kenya that teach a great deal about living in difficult times, about building community and finding hope. Perhaps we’ll read her stories on the Bloomin’ Blog one day, but for now, I’ll share the thing that struck me most.

It was joy.

It could easily have been the presence of visitors (Sharon brings out the joy in most situations) but the children who danced, the people who sang and smiled didn’t just rehearse their parts—it was part of them. You see, nothing can touch your joy. It is yours always—your song to sing…knowing your God cherishes you…memories of the way rain smells…the way you held someone you loved or that they held you—it’s your joy. It is the gift that you carry at your core, always. Joyous times may come and go, but joy is yours forever. And from it, goodness always grows.

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