joy and kindness are simply good habits

I could learn how to play the piano. If I practiced every day, and was really committed to learning it, I could. I might not be very natural at it, or even very good at it, but I could learn. I’m not that invested. What I’m invested in is getting better at the things I’m passionate about and already have a foundation in:

• writing

• speaking encouragement

• being joyful

• personal development

• ballroom dancing

• gardening

• making cocktails

Those are the things to come to mind at the moment. But I take some comfort in knowing that if I chose to take up a new hobby, that I am capable of learning. With commitment, investment, guidance. I’m not that invested in learning how to play an instrument.

I am deeply invested in the pursuit of joy, which, to some degree, is bound up in all the things I love to do. I practice these things, and, as is the nature of things practiced, I get better over time. Dependent entirely on my level of commitment, investment, guidance.

I can end up in slumps, sometimes, of not being kind, or joyful. And then I require some self-examination to rectify that which is lost. If I was learning piano, and I forfeited practice for six months, I suppose that I would have some work to do to get back to where I was.

The learning, however, would be in my brain, and it would be easier than learning it the first time. But it would have been easier still to just continue practicing and not let six months go by.

Are you all tracking? Joy is something that we can practice. We might not be naturally joyful, it might be harder work than for someone else, the study of joy might be something approached with more, or less, enthusiasm. But you will move forward. And so it is with kindness. Kindness might not be natural, or easy, or fun. But both these things will be valuable. And we can practice and get better, and they will become more natural, more easy. Maybe even more fun.