Finding Joy
Life has felt heavy lately. Even with the joy of drum corps back on the field and anticipation for the Fall, we’re also surrounded by a new, more dangerous variant of Covid and rising infections. Our society has not been able to come together around this crisis and I have made a retreat back to the safety of my home.
I am doing what I need to do to feel safe in my own world, but I still need to search for ways to find joy. Many of the things I would normally do to have fun and find joy are not available to me right now, so I need to lean on other things…or even find new ones. If I’m quiet and calm, I realize that there are other avenues to joy all around me.
Over the shut down of the last year and a half, I’ve started baking. Typically nervous in the kitchen, baking has been a great place for me to start learning new skills. In baking, if you follow the recipe (and follow the rules), things usually turn out well. In the beginning, I had to learn this discipline the hard way. I found myself cutting corners, or not measuring carefully, thinking the precision didn’t matter. But like a clean drill move, it’s works so much better if it’s done correctly.
My favorite things to bake have been cheesecakes and various breads. After success with pumpkin and banana bread (which travel great when mailed to friends and family), I have branched out recently to zucchini bread with good result! (See picture!). Trying new recipes is fun, and I find my friends are usually happy to take extra baked goods off my hands. (I always have a piece, or at least a taste, to make sure it came out okay! Daily exercise with Martial Arts keeps me in shape and allows me to indulge a bit.)
My favorite website for recipes is Once Upon a Chef. Every time I use one of her recipes it turns out great. My friends and family think I’m a genius, but I’m just following her directions. I will admit, though, that I’ve learned a lot and am getting better all the time! (Allow yourself to be bad at something new at the beginning. Mastery will come!)
I have also spent more time with other things I really enjoy, like reading, martial arts, and listening to music. Plus I stay connected with friends via video calls and online messages.
I encourage you to find joy outside your work. Having other interests and hobbies that are separate from your main passion in life is really healthy. In fact, this is the subject of an upcoming webinar with Daniel Morrison and Mike Martin: When More is More – The Benefit of Pursuing Many Interests. And consider doing some baking. Nothing is more calming than the wonderful smell of a banana bread baking in the oven. My home is full of wonderful smells, and I find a lot of joy in sharing my baking with loved ones.
Whatever you decide you want to do, give yourself permission to take the time to put your mind somewhere else for a while and simply find joy. (The world needs this right now!) You’ll do better work when you return to it, bringing a refreshed and clearer mind to the things you care about the most.
Tim Hinton
August 6, 2021
