Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a wonderful 2018 book by the designer Ingrid Fetell Lee titled Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. A preview is at Google Books. And there is an excerpt from the introduction. The ten chapters, a JOYFUL TOOLKIT and their starting pages are titled and numbered as follows:

 

Energy                       13

Abundance                42

Freedom                    73

Harmony                  103

Play                          134

Surprise                   164

Transcendence       189

Magic                       217

Celebration             245

Renewal                  271

JOYFUL TOOLKIT  299

 

Chapter 6, Surprise begins:

 

“I sat near the head of a boardroom table in a towering office building in Sydney, my heart fluttering inside my chest. The table seemed to stretch a mile from end to end. All along its edges sat the directors of business units, division heads, and people whose titles start with the letter C. Three weeks earlier, full of bravery and blind optimism of a twenty-four-year-old who had just moved to the opposite side of the world by herself, I had talked my way into a trial run as a brand consultant, a job I had never dine before. I had worked nonstop since then on a brand analysis for the client’s new business, expecting that my boss would be the one presenting it. But a few days before the meeting, my boss told me he believed that the people who did the work should speak for it and that, despite my lack of experience, he wanted me to give the presentation. So there I was, pale faced and shaky, awaiting the calamity that I was certain would follow as soon as I opened my mouth.

 

As the last few attended straggled in, I tried closing my eyes and taking deep breaths, but as I did so, memories of my previous misadventures in public speaking rose to the surface, and I began to feel even more panicked. I snapped my eyes open and looked down at my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a burst of color. A pair of rainbow-striped socks peeked out from under a charcoal-gray pant leg. They seemed so incongruous I wanted to laugh out loud. I looked up at the wearer. It was the imposing, no-nonsense head of the digital business. His eyes followed my gaze to the socks. Then he looked back up, smiled and winked. A moment later I heard my boss bring the meeting to order and call on me to begin the presentation.

 

Joy has a way of showing up when we least expect it. As we move through the stream of daily life, tiny moments can capture our attention and turn our thoughts in a joyful direction. These moments can be especially powerful in times of stress or sadness. My encounter with the rainbow socks didn’t magically transform me into a brilliant presenter, but it did something else that was helpful in that moment: it interrupted my anxious inner monologue, turning my attention from the highlights reel of my past failures to the incredible opportunity I had before me to share my work with an eager audience. It pulled me back into the room and widened my perspective. Suddenly, I found myself wondering what else might not be as it seemed. Maybe hiding inside all those power suits were other warm or funny people. Maybe my boss wouldn’t have given me such a big client if he didn’t think I was capable of handling it. Maybe I could do this after all. I can’t say I wasn’t nervous as I stood in front of that room. In fact, I clutched a water glass for the entire two-hour presentation so tightly my boss later said he could see my white knuckles. But despite my jitters, there were moments when I had to admit to myself that I was actually having fun. In the end I did well enough to turn my trial run into a full-time job and gained more opportunities to practice speaking my mind in public.”

 

The JOYFUL TOOLKIT has a JOYFINDING WORKSHEET on page 302 that has the following questions to think about:

 

PLACES

Where do I feel most joyful?

What is joyful about these places?

What aesthetics define these places?

 

PEOPLE

Who are the most joyful people I know?

What is joyful about these people?

What aesthetics do these people embody?

 

THINGS

What are the most joyful objects in my house?

What is joyful about these things?

What aesthetics do these things exhibit?

 

ACTIVITIES

What activities bring me the most joy?

What is joyful about these activities?

What aesthetics are present in these activities?

 

And The JOYFUL TOOLKIT has a parallel Killjoys Worksheet on page 304 which has the following questions to think about (but none for PEOPLE):

 

PLACES

Where do I feel least joyful?

What about these places kills my joy?

 

THINGS

What are the least joyful objects in my house?

What about these things kills my joy?

 

ACTIVITIES

What activities bring me the least joy?

What about these activities kills my joy?

 

There is a 2 page pdf Joyspotter’s Guide at The Aesthetics of Joy.

 

Ingrid has a 14-minute TED talk on June 11, 2018 titled Where Joy Hides and How to Find It | Ingrid Fetell Lee | TED. A second 19-minute TED interview by Chris Duffy on September 3, 2025 is titled How to Be More Joyful (W/ Ingrid Fetell Lee) | How to Be a Better Human | TED.

 

A cropped version of Dirck Hals Joyful Gathering painting came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Idaho’s Wassmuth Center for Human Rights celebrates its thirtieth anniversary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An article by Valentin Termite at the Idaho Capital Sun on June 18, 2026 is titled Believing in the goodness of people: Idaho human rights center celebrates 30-year anniversary. It links to their web page on Wassmuth Powerful Practices, which briefly are titled (and then also explained in detail):

 

Collect Joy

Design for Belonging

Listen Deeply

Stay Curious

Notice and Name Bright Spots

Align Actions with Values

 

To collect joy you should:

 

“Notice, savor, and share moments of connection, warmth, and delight as expressions of human dignity and belonging. Paying attention to what is life-giving cultivates hope and sustains commitment to building a better world for all.” 

 

And, to listen deeply you should:

 

“Offer your full presence to another person without interruption, judgment, or trying to fix. Seeking to understand feelings, perspectives, and needs affirms that every person matters.” 

 

On October 27, 2024 I blogged about A new building at Boise’s Wassmuth Center for Human Rights with quotations carved in stone.

 

The border for the thirtieth came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

Joy is the most enjoyable path to learning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a useful 2024 book by David Novak titled How Leaders Learn: Master the habits of the world’s most successful people. Google Books has a preview of its first sixty pages and six chapters.

 

On page 143 David says that:

 

“Joy is our source of purpose, passion, mission – and the most enjoyable path to learning.

 

Of course, pursuing your joy requires that you know where to find it in your life and work. Not many people consider what makes them happiest, beyond things that aren’t necessarily within their control. When I wrote Take Charge of You with sports performance coach Jason Goldsmith, we tackled this question at the start. If you’re going to coach yourself to success, you need to know what you’re coaching yourself toward. We suggested people start by mining their experiences for joy blockers (we’re a bit better at remembering negatives) and then shift and search for their joy builders.

 

Try asking yourself this: What’s getting in the way of my joy? If you’re not sure, think back to some of your worst days, or a job that frustrated you or made you miserable or unfulfilled. What made it so difficult for you? Be as specific as possible. Did you want to be in a different role? Was there one specific thing that you were required to do that you dreaded doing? Was there a person or team you had to work with that brought you down?

 

I’m sure you can think of examples. We all hate our jobs sometimes. Even if you can think of examples, though, you may never have deeply reflected or logically analyzed why you were unhappy in a particular situation or environment.

 

I wish I could give a good example of this kind of reflection from my own life, but I’ve rarely felt that way. And I don’t think most active learners have much experience with it either, at least not for long. When active learners find themselves in a situation that’s too full of their joy blockers, they learn their way out of it or they learn their way around the blockers fast. They know if they don’t, they’ll stagnate. They also know that just because a job or situation doesn’t come preloaded with joy builders doesn’t mean it’s the wrong choice. It just means it’s up to them to find a way around the blockers.

 

….What are your joy builders? And how can you pursue them? Think about some of your best days or jobs – times when you felt especially purposeful, powerful, optimistic, and joyful. What was happening? What were you doing? Who were you doing it with? What specific things made you feel happy, excited, or energized? Try looking at your joy blocker examples and asking, What would have made me happier in those situations?”

 

My cartoon was assembled using a brick wall and stairs from OpenClipArt.  

 

 

A thoughtful book by Marcus Buckingham on how to design love into business

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a thoughtful 2026 book by Marcus Buckingham titled Design Love In: How to unleash the most powerful force in business. Google Books has a preview through page 38. Marcus discusses it in a ChangeThis manifesto on April 8, 2026 titled The Business Case for Love. DLI is his acronym for Design Love In.

 

On page 11 he says:

 

“For leaders to create reliable, repeatable changes in behavior, they must focus on the experience that creates the forces that create the behavior. This means leaders must understand their real job. Leadership is not fundamentally about clarifying expectations or motivating teams or cascading strategies. Leadership is the craft of shaping the experiences that shape human behavior. Leaders – the most effective ones – are experience-makers.

 

This insight reframes leadership entirely. Every moment between a leader and a colleague or a leader and a customer is an experience. The first day on the job is an experience. The weekly check-in is an experience. Sending an email is an experience. Presenting work is an experience. Being recognized, being challenged, being supported – or conversely, being dismissed or ignored – are all experience. What we measure on employee and customer surveys are felt experiences. What we label ‘culture’ is really just the aggregated experiences of the employees. When we say we want to build a strong culture, what we actually mean is that we want to design every touchpoint so carefully that each person has a similar experience. (And culture building is so hard precisely because there are so many touchpoints that have to be designed).

 

Always remember that because leaders create experiences in every moment, they are always shaping the internal forces that shape behavior. The question is not whether you, as a leader, are an experience-maker. You are. The question is whether you’re a skilled one.

 

So to help you build this skill, in part one of the book you’ll learn that love isn’t purely mysterious – that instead, love, when deconstructed, reveals itself to comprise five distinct feelings. These five feelings are sequential. You start with number one and end with number five. The leader with the DLI skill knows how to use this sequence as their blueprint for designing love in to [sic] anything - from onboarding to a team meeting to a customer interaction with a brand.

 

….In part two of the book, you’ll take these insights, this data and these perspectives, and put them into practice. Specifically, you’ll learn the playbook for how to design love in to [sic] the experiences of those you lead and of those you serve.”

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A table of mine, shown above, summarizes the five feelings of love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marcus has a series of nine graphics starting on page 17  (which I have summarized above in another table) which compare the Current mindSET with the corresponding DLI mindMOVE.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, as shown above, his curious choice of graphics put the Current mindSET at the upper left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Cartesian coordinates we would expect that to be at the lower left (Quadrant III) and the DLI mindMOVE at the upper right (Quadrant I), as is shown in my revision.

 

The falling in love cartoon came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

A decorated book drop at my friendly local public library

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every time I return books at the Lake Hazel branch of the Ada Community Library I get a chuckle from using their decorated inside book drop. When I pull the handle on its drum, it rotates downward to reveal eight teeth, as is shown above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That library branch also has a drive-up book drop. Some book drops are more complicated than they appear. There may be a spring-loaded surface inside. As shown in this brief Reddit video, books do not drop all the way to the ground from the slot.  

 

There is an article by Dr. Steve Albrecht at Library 2.0 on April 5, 2024 titled Horror Stories from the Book Drop: A Recap of Items Found by Librarians.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside book drops sometimes are vandalized. Back in 2010 a disgruntled patron threw mayonnaise and other condiments into the drop at the Victory Road branch of the Ada Community Library. Another Reuters article on January 29, 2011 described how a Woman who dumped condiments in book drop pleads guilty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But that’s not the worst thing possible. Still another article by Chuck Knox in LIDAR Magazine on January 15, 2018 titled Future After Fire: The Renovation of the Eckhart Public Library said that:

 

“In the early morning of July 2nd, 2017 3 individuals were wandering the town of Auburn, Indiana looking to cause trouble. That trouble resulted in 1 of the 3 dropping a lit 1” mortar style fire firework in the return book drop box of the Eckhart Public Library. The result was an intense fire that caused an estimated 3.4 million dollars’ worth of damage to the building and its contents. The Auburn Fire Department was quickly on the scene and had the fire extinguished within 10 minutes of arriving. Even with their quick response the damage was horrific. Within a week of the fire the Auburn Police arrested Nykolas Elkin age 24 for the arson. He later admitted he placed the lit firework in the drop box; he was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison for the crime.”

 

Images of a mayonnaise jar and a fire truck came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Life in the Present is a wonderfully joyful little book of comics by Liz Climo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a 112-page book from 2024 by Liz Climo titled Life in the Present: a joyful collection of comics about living in the moment. As shown above (in my version), the cover has a hamster looking out from a window in a gift box. That comic is shown on page 84. Its first frame has the hamster reading a book and is captioned:

 

“True happiness comes when you live in the present.”

 

Four sections in it are titled:

 

Work (page 7)

Play (page 32)

Rest (page 60)

Reflect (page 85)

 

There is a post by Rafael Velez at the threadless blog on July 19, 2024 titled Liz Climo on Living in the Present: Comics, Joy, and Everyday Magic.

 

And three examples of dialogue in this book from her cartoons are:

 

Page 34

Bear (playing cards): I get so nervous making new friends. What if they’re grumpy? Or have nothing to say? What if they get on my nerves?

Rabbit (also playing cards): Do you ever wonder if anyone feels that way about you?

Bear (still playing cards): Oh, no, I’m a delight.

 

Page 58

Penguin: Let’s hang out sometime. What’s your number?

Turtle: 6.

Penguin: Just 6?

Turtle: Yeah, I’m really old.

 

Page 89

Weasel (reading text from shark): Everyone is scared of me, do you think it’s because I’m so brutally honest?

Weasel (replies): Nah, dude, it’s because you’re a shark.

 

Many other cartoon are shown in a series of seven collections over at boredpanda:

 

June 29, 2015

Awkward everyday lives of lovable animals by Simpsons illustrator Liz Climo

 

October 13, 2016

Simpsons illustrator shows what would happen if animals celebrated Halloween (42 pics)

 

March 5, 2019

The Simpsons animator illustrates awkward everyday lives of lovable animals, amasses 849k Instagram followers

 

April 30, 2021

The Simpsons animator illustrates awkward everyday moments of these wholesome animals (30 new pics)

 

June 27, 2023

“The Simpsons” animator illustrates humorous everyday moments of talking animals (40 new pics)

 

October 29, 2024

“The Simpsons” animator Liz Climo creates humorous comic sillustrating cute moments of talking animals (30 new pics)

 

May 14, 2025

22 Funny everyday moments of talking animals illustrated by “The Simpsons” animator Liz Climo (new comics)

 

The gift box and hamster were adapted from OpenClipArt.

 

The Joy of Solitude is an interesting book by Robert J. Coplan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a very interesting 2025 book by Robert J. Coplan titled The Joy of Solitude: How to Reconnect with Yourself in an Overconnected World. It is briefly discussed at NextBigIdeaClub in an article on December 8, 2025 titled The Power of Being Alone: Why Solitude Is Good for You. His Five Key Insights are that:

 

Solitude is not loneliness.

You are not alone if you are craving more time alone.

We all need solitude – even extraverts.

Parents can help children develop their capacity for solitude.

In the end, it’s all about balance.

 

Professor Coplan’s book has chapter summaries titled User’s Guide for Solitude [pages 227 to 232] as follows:

 

KNOWLEDGE ABOUT SOLITUDE IS POWER. [Chapter 8, pages 140 and 141]

Keep a solitude diary where you track your time alone, solitary activities, and mood every day for a week. Afterward, examine it for patterns, make some tweaks, and see if you can improve your mood.

 

WHEN IT COMES TO SOLITUDE, YOU DO YOU.

Everyone needs to find their personal ‘just right’ amount of solitude and to personalize their alone time with their preferred solitary activities.

 

IF YOU DON’T ENJOY SOLITUDE, FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT.

Just thinking positive thoughts while alone can improve experiences of solitude, and being reminded of the benefits of solitude can improve the strength of those effects.

 

ENGAGE IN MICRODOSES OF SOLITUDE.

Spending as little as fifteen minutes alone a day can have measurable and lasting positive effects. And remember, ‘practice makes better’ applies to alone time as well. Make a plan for how you can integrate a little bit of solitude into your routine on most days – and stick to it!

 

WHEN ALONE, DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY.

If you find yourself ruminating while alone, try to distract yourself with another activity, write out your thoughts to get them out of your head and onto paper, or make some concrete plan to address your worries. If you still struggle with these negative thoughts, consider seeing a therapist. There is really good help available, and it can make a huge difference.

 

WHEN YOU ARE ALONE, LOOK FORWARD TO LETTING YOUR MIND WANDER. [Chapter 9, pages 158 and 159]

Use time alone as an opportunity to let your mind wander. But be mindful that your daydreams do not deteriorate into daymares. Although this can be challenging, thinking happy thoughts and focusing on positive feelings can help.

 

TO HELP GET UNSTUCK, INCUBATE AND SWITCH.

To boost creative solutions to stubborn problems, take a solitude break and switch to a different activity. Ideally, this activity should not be too engaging, not too boring, but ‘just right.’ Take some time and experiment with different approaches to find your own optimal activity for this.

 

FIND YOUR BALANCE BETWEEN SOLITUDE AND SOCIALIZING.

To help with the creative process, and to generally boost your mood and well-being, alternate between episodes of being alone and time with others. Again, this balance will require some time to figure out, and it will look different for different people.

 

SOLITUDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO GO WITH THE FLOW.

Time alone can also be an opportunity to achieve a state of flow. Find an activity that you enjoy, find challenging, and feel motivated to pursue. Dive in, immerse yourself in the experience, and let it lead you wherever it goes.

 

IF YOU ENJOY SPENDING TIME ALONE, CONSIDER TURNING OFF YOUR PHONE FOR A WHILE. [Chapter 10, pages 179 and 180]

For soloists and introverts, optimal alone time likely entails no or minimal use of technology. Too much tech can interfere and distract from positive experiences of solitude.

 

IF YOU FIND SOLITUDE ANXIETY-PROVOKING, BORING, OR AVERSIVE, YOUR PHONE CAN BE HELPFUL IN TERMS OF MAKING YOUR TIME ALONE MORE PLEASANT.

Be mindful of using your alone time exclusively to interact virtually with others. You are likely missing out on a lot of ‘freedoms’ that solitude has to offer. Consider at least turning off your notifications and refraining from the more ‘social’ uses of your phone.

 

WE SHOULD ALL ASPIRE TO FEEL SOME JOMO.

Try to reframe each solitary ‘time-out’ from technology as a joyful respite from your phone’s constant demands for your attention. Relish and revel in all the stuff you are (temporarily) missing out on.

 

WHEN ALONE, TRY TO USE TECHNOLOGY FOR ‘GOOD’ INSTEAD OF FOR ‘EVIL.’

Aim to reduce obsessive monitoring of social media timelines or doomscrolling through anxiety-provoking news headlines and be mindful of how such activities impact your mood. Instead, focus on activities that reduce your stress, such as reading, listening to music, engaging in hobbies, or playing mindless games that facilitate mind wandering.

 

SPENING TOO MUCH TIME SCROLLING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA CAN RUIN YOUR TIME ALONE – AND LIKELY MAKE YOU FEEL BAD ABOUT YOURSELF UNDER ALMOST ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

This advice is presented without caveat!

 

LEARNING TO PLAY SOLO IS AN IMPORTANT TASK FOR YOUNG CHILDREN, AND PARENTS CAN HELP THEM DEVELOP AND FLEX THEIR SOLITUDE ‘MUSCLES.’ [Chapter 11, pages 200 and 201]

Try to build in some solitude time as part of your child’s regular routine. They may resist it at first, but keep with it. Children will also benefit from choosing how they want to spend time alone, but for children under the age of five years, screen time should not be a regular solitary activity.

 

SOLITUDE MAY BE HARDER TO COME BY FOR OLDER CHILDREN, AND PARENTS MAY NEED TO HELP THEM CARVE OUT TIME AND SPACE TO BE ALONE.

Be mindful not to overprogram children’s schedules. Older children are often dealing with a social environment conspiring against them getting time alone. This can be a source of stress that is not often acknowledged, particularly for children who crave solitude.

 

PARENTS OF ADOLESCENTS SHOULD BE MINDFUL OF A GROWING NEED FOR PRIVACY AND DESIRE FOR SOLITUDE THAT OFTEN COMES AT THIS AGE.

Parents should strive to grant their teenagers a reasonable amount of autonomy, privacy, and time alone. At the same time, parents should also be vigilant for signs that their teenagers’ experiences of solitude are not solely fraught with loneliness and angst.

 

PARENTS STILL NEED THEIR SOLITUDE TOO.

Grant yourself permission to spend some time alone. For many people, a small investment in ‘me time’ offers the valuable return of being a better parent and a better person.

 

WHEN IT COME TO MAJOR LIFE DECISIONS THAT MAY BE RELATED TO SOLITUDE (SUCH AS LIVING ALONE OR BEING SINGLE), THERE IS NO ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS. [Chapter 12, pages 220 and 221]

People benefit from both time alone and time with others, and they should strive to live their lives in a way that encourages a balance that works for them. Even if it were the case that marriage makes people happier overall, this does not mean that getting married will make everyone happier.

 

A SMALL INVESTMENT IN TAKING TIME FOR YOURSELF ON ANY GIVEN DAY CAN PAY OFF IN TERMS OF IMPROVING YOUR TIME WITH OTHERS.

Even if you end up spending a little bit less time directly interacting with others, the quality of that time will be improved enough that people around you will feel better about their relationships with you.

 

IT IS OKAY TO ASK FOR ALONE TIME.

Taking time for yourself is okay, even when you are the parent of young children. It should be completely normative and acceptable to say to someone you are close with. ‘I love you. I love spending time with you, but right now I need a few hours by myself.’ “  

 

There is another more general article by Flora Tsapovsky at BBC [Culture] on June 10, 2025 titled ‘Humans need solitude’: How being alone can make you happier.

 

The statue is of John Huston.

  

Celebrating a joyful milestone of 3000 blog posts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just passed a joyful milestone - 3000 blog posts. My first pair of posts were over eighteen years ago on May 26, 2008. There have been 3,144,713 page views or an overall average of 1,048 per post. The five posts with the highest number of page views are:

 

25,900: October 27, 2009 - The 14 Worst Human Fears in the1977 Book of Lists: where did this data come from?

 

22,300: July 5, 2009 – Two types of speech outlines:speaking and preparation

 

17,200: February 6, 2019 – Is flip-chart a racist term?

 

8,980: December 29, 2011 – How can you easily draw dotted chalk lines on a blackboard?

 

7,490: December 6, 2021 - Most Americans are not terrified of public speaking

 

On July 22, 2024 I had blogged about Celebrating 2,700 blog posts. The first four then were the same as the current ones.

 

The image of a crate came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

Small acts of joy bring big gains in happiness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting brief article by Darwin A. Guevarra, Xuhai ‘Orson” Xu, and Emiliana Simon-Thomas in the December 2025 issue of Scientific American titled Small, Easy Acts of Joy Mean Big Gains in Happiness. It describes how there is a free, globally available online resource called the Big Joy Project.

 

“People who sign up for this project receive a daily e-mail or text that includes a link to instructions for a five- to 10-minute micro act, defined as a short, simple activity for building joy. The opening micro act, for example, invites participants to listen to a 42-second audio clip of different people laughing, including the Dalai Lama and Tutu. It’s an uplifting moment designed to elicit a smile or chuckle. The rest of the activities are delivered each day for seven days and include making a gratitude list, doing something kind, reflecting on a core value, feeling loving-kindness (or a state of tenderness and consideration to others), reframing a difficult experience, celebrating another person’s joy and watching an awe-inspiring video….

 

By analyzing responses from 17,598 people from 169 countries and territories, we found that people reported higher emotional well-being, more positive emotions, lower stress, and even modest improvements in sleep quality and physical health.

 

It took surprisingly little time and effort for participants to feel better. Many well-being programs span eight weeks or more, but the Big Joy Project yielded meaningful changes after just one week. And the more micro acts people completed, the more their happiness improved.”

 

The image was modified from this one at OpenClipArt.

 

Finding joy at work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are some long, excellent publications about finding joy at work. For example, there is a 42-page pdf white paper by Jessica Perlo et al. in 2017 from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) titled IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work. It describes:

 

“The importance of joy in work (the ‘why’).

 

Four steps leaders can take to improve joy in work (the ‘how’).

 

The IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work: nine critical components of a system for ensuring a joyful, engaged workforce (the ‘what’).

 

Key change ideas for improving joy in work, along with examples from organizations that helped test them.

 

Measurement and assessment tools for gauging efforts to improve joy in work.”

 

And there is an article by Alex Liu at the Harvard Business Review in July 2019 titled Making Joy a Priority at Work. Another article by Megan Dalla-Camina at Psychology Today on December 12, 2023 is titled 6 Ways to Find More Joy at Work. 

 

And there is a 60-page pdf article by Amanda Cornett and Jeannine Herrick from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) in July 2024 titled Joy in Work Implementation Guide. On page 8 they mention nine key areas:

 

Physical and psychological safety

Meaning and purpose

Choice and autonomy

Recognition and rewards

Participative management

Camaraderie and teamwork

Daily improvement

Wellness and resilience

 

A section on page 47 about Spreading Joy begins:

 

“Joy deserves to be spread to others. You can create a ripple effect that starts with your team and then spreads to others. Be intentional and plan for how you will spread and scale your efforts. A workplace culture that prioritizes JOY IN WORK will typically use a layered approach continuously thinking through how the implementation steps look differently for SELF (the manager), INDIVIDUAL STAFF, TEAM, and the overall ORGANIZATION. If you’ve been successful with your SELF, STAFF, and TEAM what do you do next to spread it to others and throughout the ORGANIZATION.”

 

The cartoon was cropped from one at OpenClipArt. 

 

 

A little book about 101 Seeds for Library Joy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

At my local Ada Community Library I found and read a little 2025 book by Rebecca Hass titled 101 Seeds for Library Joy. There is a 16-page pdf sample. And there is an article by Catherine Hollerbach at PublicLibrariesOnline on September 24, 2024 titled Spreading Joy at the Public Library. Six entries from the book are:

 

Page 17:

“WRITE A BULLETED LIST or craft a vision board USING THE PROMPT ‘THERE IS JOY IN…” HANG IT UP OR SAVE IT so you can refer to it often.”

 

Page 30:

“PLAY WITH WORDS. Make a list of words that resonate with you and try writing a haiku.”

 

Page 46:

“WRITE DOWN a quote THAT INSPRES YOU and place it somewhere you will see it often.”

 

Page 64:

“Look up the Feelings Wheel and explore the range of positive emotions in it.”

 

Page 80:

“Go to the Children’s Department in your local library and read a recommended children’s book.”

 

Page 101:

“The poet Toi Derricote wrote, JOY IS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE. Journal about how your joy is, OR COULD BE, AN ACT OF Resistance.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Feeling Wheel is from an October 1982 article by Gloria Wilcox on pages 274 to 276 in the Transactional Analysis Journal. My colored version for its inner circle, and just a Joyful Wheel are shown above.

 

A cartoon of a librarian was adapted from one at OpenClipArt.

 

 

The Year I Stopped to Notice is a delightful little book by Miranda Keeling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By interlibrary loan from the Twin Falls Public Library I obtained and read a delightful little 2022 book by Miranda Keeling titled The Year I Stopped to Notice. It could have been subtitled The Joy of Noticing Little Things - which are what can make a speech memorable.  That book has 177 pages and is just 4-7/8’ wide by 6-1/2” high. There is a Google Books preview through page 32. Her introduction begins:

 

“You might be reading this because the cover looked cheerful, or you’re frantically searching for a present for a friend. You might just be marking time in a shop because it’s raining outside and you don’t want to leave yet. Whichever way you found yourself here, hello.

 

It’s the small moments, like the one you’re having right now, that make up this book: a woman in a shop opens a book and reads the introduction. Perhaps she is wearing a yellow dress. Her brown hair is curly. It is swept up with a silver clip in the shape of a shark. It is chilly in the shop, and she places the book down to take a knitted green cardigan out of her bag and put it on. The wool is thin at her right elbow. Perhaps a man reads this page. He sits at his laptop in a café, looking at the book online. He has dark red hair. His hands on the keyboard are freckled. He is avoiding work. Underneath the café table a small elderly dog sleeps across the man’s foot – the dog makes short whining noises at something in its dream, Perhaps one of these people is you. Perhaps you are completely different.

 

Days can feel long, and years fast. Our lives are full, yet at the end of the day when someone asks us what we did, we can barely remember. This book is the result of me stopping to notice the details and finding that ordinary life is extraordinary in its own way. If you’re someone who can find the big picture a little overwhelming and need moments of peace in the storm, or who loves the busy, layered fabric of life and just wants some of it captured to enjoy over coffee, read on.

 

Everywhere I go, I record what I notice: snippets of conversation, images, an atmosphere. I have been captivated by the everyday since I was very small. I grew up in Yorkshire, the Netherlands, America, and London. As my mum and I walked around these places, she would often interrupt a sentence to say: ‘Did you see that?’ I loved the times it turned out that we had spotted the same, small thing. At art college I studied glassmaking. I made miniature sculptures – if you looked closely at them, you could see worlds of colour inside. I carried a notebook everywhere, Then, about seven years ago, I began writing them down instead. Not everything I see is lovely. I live in the world. But that is not what this book is for. You will find the melancholy and the surreal here, but that’s as far as it goes.”

 

 Here are a half-dozen examples from the book:

 

Page 9 from January:

"Little boy on the train: Mama?

His mum: Yes?

Little boy: I never see you brush your hair.

His mum: I do a lot of things you don’t see.

(Pause)

Little boy: Like flying?"

 

Page 44 from March:

“A man on the train sighs as, having meticulously arranged his lunch on his little fold-down table, the woman from the window seat beside him needs the loo.”

 

Page 65 from May:

“A man has stopped on Oxford Street and stands in his socks, as he pours what appears to be green and pink confetti out of his shoes.”

 

Page 117 from August:

“A man outside a yet-to-open piano shop signals frantically to the woman inside to let him in. This is clearly a musical emergency.”

 

Page 137 from October:

“A little girl on a doorstep manages to negotiate eating an entire piece of toast while having her coat put on by her mum.”

 

Page 164 from December:

“Like an opening fan, five people at a bus stop lean sequentially to the left as they try to read the number of the bus coming up the road.

 

There is a 24-minute YouTube video at Carers UK on August 26, 2022 titled Stopping to notice with Miranda Keeling. And there is another newer book (I have not read) from June 2025 by Miranda Keeling titled The Place I’m In: What I see when I stop to notice, which again has a preview at Google Books. Miranda also has a podcast titled Stopping to Notice.

 

Back on February 28, 2014 I blogged about Speech topics from near your neighborhood, and paying attention to things - like a gold Buddha statue sitting on a white concrete bench next to the driveway of a home.

 

The train sign came from here at Wikimedia Commons.

 

A joyous Book of Delights by Ross Gay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 25, 2025 I had blogged about An intriguing book by Ross Gay with 14 essays about inciting joy. Before that, in 2019, he had published another little 274-page book with 102 essays titled The Book of Delights. There is a preview through page 24 at Google Books. His preface says:

 

“One day last July, feeling delighted and compelled to both wonder about and share that delight, I decided that it might feel nice, even useful, to write a daily essay about something delightful. I remember laughing to myself how obvious it was. I could call it something like The Book of Delights.

 

I came up with a handful of rules: write a delight every day for a year; begin and end on my birthday, August 1; draft them quickly; and write them by hand. The rules mad it a discipline for me. A practice. Spend time thinking and writing about delight every day. 

 

Because I was writing these essayettes pretty much daily (confession: I skipped some days), patterns and themes and concerns show up. For instance, I traveled quite a bit this year. I often write in cafes. My mother is often on my mind. Racism is often on my mind. Politics. Pop music. Books. Dreams. Public space. My garden is often on my mind.

 

It didn’t take me long to learn that the discipline or practice of writing these essays occasioned a kind of delight radar. Or maybe it was more like the development of a delight muscle. Something that implies that the more you study delight, the more delight there is to study. A month or two into this project delights were calling to me: Write about me! Write about me! Because it is rude not to acknowledge your delights. I’d tell them that though they might not become essayettes, they were still important, and I was grateful to them. Which is to say, I felt my life to be more full of delight. Not without sorrow or fear or pain or loss. But more full of delight. I also learned this year that my delight grows – much like love and joy – when I share it.”

 

There is an article by Christina Cala at npr codeswitch on August 19, 2021 titled How Ross Gay Finds Joy in the Smallest of ‘Delights’. And there also is a four-minute YouTube video at AlgonquinBooksTV on November 6, 2018 titled The Book of Delights by Ross Gay where he reads from #80 Tomato on Board and #96 The Marfa Lights.

 

The very brief Essay #56 on page 154 is titled My Life, My Life, My Life, My Life in the Sunshine. It is about the 1976 Roy Ayers song Everybody Loves the Sunshine, which you can listen to here (and find the lyrics). Ross says:

 

“Which delight landed in my lap from the open window of a passing car, and is simply (although the plaintive synth chords and watery triplets betray somewhat the simplicity) an argument for the sunshine, which, true, maybe I am the choir, but I like the argument for its simplicity, which is that everybody loves it , and everybody loves it, and folks get brown in it, and folks get down in it, and most convincingly to me, and that which elevates it to the metaphysical, even the holy: just bees and things and flowers.”

 

The 1974 mural by Dieter M. Weidenbach came from here at Wikimedia Commons.