Blissful, a feeling of great joy
I have a track record of saying the wrong word. Mostly confusing, at times hilarious, often frustrating, the substitute word usually has nothing to do with what I was trying to say. Think of taking the hoover for a walk or finding the keys for the kettle. Sometimes I get close and it's 'Please take the clothes out of the dishwasher'.
Today I was thinking about the writing jobs I have to do and it's a choice between useful books which actually make money or story books which make a small amount but keep my soul alive.
I walked through the house, lining up the jobs in my mind, and found myself saying, 'Let's be blissful about this'.
I stopped and looked at the cat. The cat looked back and we both considered.
'I didn't mean blissful,' I told the cat, 'I meant...organised? Positive?'
The cat said nothing and continued to stare at me in that way people have when they think you might be dangerous.
All the jobs we do, or tell ourselves we have to do, and all the alternatives which create some wonder, suspense, comfort and yes,
joy, in our lives: these are what drive us forward and make us into human beings who move and create. Why shouldn't we feel blissful about them?
I know we often have messy jobs to do, dirty jobs which make our faces scowl or hard jobs that knot stomachs and clench hands. Jobs we put off for years and end up changing our lives. Jobs no one else can do and which many, many people do alongside us.
Why not be blissful?
Rather than think of bliss as a serene, saintly state of smiling unreality, why not think of it as a change in attitude? We can find something hard and still shine or we can cry as we work and still grow as people.
I know jobs can be hard! They can be so very hard that we feel we will never be the same again once we have done them. Be blissful, take yourself by the hand and move forward. Sometimes bliss is not the pursuit of perfection, rather it is the sense that today I was fully me, I did what had to be done and here I am, right at the end of it. Today I was more than myself, even when I sat on the ground and could not get up again without help.
Let the light in, let the feeling grow and understand the job doesn't matter so much as the way we do it. Today, in small ways, be blissful.
© Amanda J Harrington 2016
