Roads to Joy

We must have planted the Viburnum in the corner of our front garden some years ago and then left it to its own devices. My iPlant app tells us that this lovely plant decides to bloom in late autumn and then continues on into early spring. But we’d never been aware of its blossom until this morning when I ventured out to catch something of the hazy mist between us and the rising sun. Perhaps it’s been blooming year on year, or perhaps not, perhaps this is its first exposure, but whatever, what a surprise!

Life goes on, even when we’re too busy to stop and reflect on it. This weekend has been a tumult of divestment: dozens of boxes down from the loft have been sorted, distributed to various recycling bins, and taken to adult children’s homes. And the clearance continues; today’s another day for me to visit the dump. Exciting stuff, and our tentative schedule allows for complete clearance of the property by the target completion date in the New Year.

And meanwhile, as we note, the joys are there, even if we don’t quite have time to reflect upon them. I’m stealing a moment this morning, while the rest of the family catch up with things, to note the joys of the weekend that have somehow crept up while we’re unaware.

The old family photographs, thirty years hence, and the youth and vitality we once experienced! And we were so blithe, so caught up in the busyness and organisation of life that we somehow ambled through without much reflective thought. Older age must be a time of reflection, if only to make up for lost opportunities earlier.

And so we’re resolved that we must find the time, while we still can, to muse on the joys that we experience, while they’re happening. Perhaps when I look back on my year of musing, of recording daily joys, I’ll realise that I have been trying to do just that. And then I won’t feel quite so sorry that I’d missed thinking about earlier joys, but rather I can revel in the remembered ones, and keep them safe in our hearts.

It’s lovely to remember the past, and lovely to experience the joys as they’re developing in the present, but perhaps even more fulfilling to be looking ahead to future joys.

We shall try to be sure that our eyes are open to them.