The Discipline of Joy
Saturday 16th December 2023
Dear Friends,
It’s ten o’clock on Friday evening. Usually I have a routine - come back form the workshop, eat dinner, then write the newsletter.
But I got a bit distracted.
I was playing my guitar.
I play a cheap nylon-strung classical guitar, but as if it was just a ‘regular’ acoustic. No fancy classical or flamenco fingerpicking here. Just some simple chords and popular tunes.
Usually my guitar spends most of its life hanging on the wall, but today I felt an urge to get it down, play some music, and sing some songs. Just to myself. Enjoying the feeling of making music. Enjoying the feeling of singing. Enjoying being with this music in the present moment.
And time slipped away.
But it made me realise something.
Most of us turn to craft for exactly this reason. To enjoy the feeling of being present with something. To enjoy the feeling of creating something. To enjoy focusing on something to the point where time just slips away.
But so often, as we explore our craft in depth, it can begin to feel like a chore.
We can get frustrated that we are ot skilful enough to make what we want to make
Or that we are skilful enough, but it is not going to plan.
Or if it has gone to plan, that we can’t quite ‘finish’ it properly.
Or that we can’t find customers for it.
And so on
And so forth.
There is always some concern, somewhere, that draws us away from just being with our work and enjoying it. The thing that we discovered to to bring our lives more joy can become a source of irritation.
We are such funny creatures.
Sometimes, then, it is necessary to enforce joy - as a discipline!
Either you can discipline yourself to step away from the struggle and do something else that is joyful.
Or you can discipline yourself to find joy in whatever task you are doing.
Discipline is when you do something just because you have decided - not because you feel like it. Often we take this to mean ‘hard’ disciplines, but there is no reason that joy can’t be a discipline. In fact, I think it is one of the most useful disciplines there is.
It draws us into the present moment.
It reminds us that life is wonderful not in some illusory future that will never arrive, and not in some glorified past - the halcyon days of yore. But right here and right now.
So if your craft is getting you down (or life in general, for that matter) then make it a discipline to find some joy. Either in your work, or elsewhere.
Enter into that moment, the joyful present moment, as best as you can.
Purely for the sake of enjoying that moment.
And then when you do return to your work, you’ll do so refreshed and renewed.
Until next time,
Stay sharp friends
~sh