Fortune Cookie Friday: Let Your Capacity for Joy Overflow
At first glance, I thought this fortune was a dud. It sounded like every other vague fortune that comes from a cookie or sketchy palm reader. I almost discarded it when I remembered that I don’t do that. I write about every fortune I get no matter how lame they may sound.
So, I reread the paper and let my mind wander. Lots of things popped into my head: be positive, enjoy the little things in life, “Don’t worry; be happy,” “Be excellent to each other, and party on, Dude!”
The idea of a positive outlook would seem to be the premise of this prognostication, but then something came to me. What if this fortune is not just about finding joy in life but embracing it?
The key word in this fortune is capacity. It’s very similar to ability or capability. All of these words refer to one’s power to perform an action. But capacity has an extra meaning. It also relates to volumes and quantities.
What does volume have to do with joy? I’m glad you asked. Think of a battery. We use them to store energy to run our devices, like cell phones and flashlights. They come in all sizes and capacities. Some are even rechargeable. People are batteries.
It may sound like I am talking about the Matrix, but when it comes to the enjoyment of life, our capacity matters. We shouldn’t just look for joy in life; we should embrace it. Joy needs to become a part of us. If we have a high capacity for joy, we can embrace a considerable amount of it.
Embracing that joy doesn’t mean we keep it to ourselves. We need to find the joy in life and the world around us and let it fill us up—fill us to the point of overflowing. Then we need to share that joy with others. What good is a battery that we never use?
The phrase, “bubbling over with joy,” is where we are aiming. We want to feel so joyful that we have to share it with others. That joy fills them and pours out onto someone else. It’s like those chocolate fountains you see at fancy events. We should be that cup at the top, overflowing with joy, and who doesn’t love a chocolate fountain?
How do we fill ourselves with joy? Well, when our devices are running low on juice, we find an outlet. We recharge by looking for the things that make us joyful and search for the joy in the mundane. Trust me; they are there. There are more joyful charging stations in life than an Apple store.
Becoming a full capacity battery can be challenging. I’ll admit, like a battery, I have dealt with some corrosion lately. I have listened to construction outside my office for the last week, and it has taken its toll. Perhaps the woes and sins of life have built up on your contacts. No worries; a battery with a little corrosion is still good. We need to clean them off, and we can get back to work.
For me, that meant packing up all my stuff and heading to my favorite secluded park to find some peace. Listening to the birds sing and the wind rustling through the leaves “charges my battery.” Even on my drive, I found enough joy to inspire me to write this post. Once my joyful battery reaches maximum capacity, I take it a step farther and share the joy with others.
Do I have the capacity for the enjoyment of life that this fortune predicts? That is something we all have to decide. Do we want to be a tiny button cell watch battery or a 100-megawatt system like Tesla’s in South Australia, that is capable of providing electricity for as many as 30,000 homes? How many people do we want to fill with joy? No matter the size, let your capacity for joy overflow.
