Bringing Joy into Our Lives

“Enjoy your day”… What does that mean?

Photo by Christian Diokno

I am on the journey of winding down my world for the summer. This is uncommon for me. Being self-employed, I tend to always be working on the next project, my back-brain always engaged, always ready to launch the next thing.

But something inside of me said that I needed to breathe a bit, consolidate, let go of some things that I’ve always done, and see what new things want to be born. However, I’m finding it strangely harder than I thought. Maybe because my work also feels like a calling, it’s like I’m having a hard time leaving my Self to the side so I can breathe.

And so, part of my journey is to imagine what my days could look like. I have 8 weeks of a very different life… what would be my ideal time with me?

While journalling in a lovely café this morning (definitely one of my joys), the idea of “enjoying this time for me” appeared on the page.

Enjoy. En-joy. What does this really mean?

Intellectually, I think that I should enjoy my time no matter what I’m doing. SHOULD ENJOY. Hmmmm.

Emotionally, I want to relax so that I can enjoy my time… but maybe this is just a reflection of some difficult emotional times around me lately and I’m just emotionally tired.

None of these have anything to do with JOY and none of them feel particularly light and fun.

Adding Joy to My Life with “En”

There’s something about the prefix “en” that has me fascinated. When I read “enjoy”, I think of “infusing my life with joy”. To make joy inside of me.

Here is one official definition:

A prefix occurring originally in loanwords from French and productive in English on this model, forming verbs with the general sense “to cause (a person or thing) to be in” the place, condition, or state named by the stem; more specifically, “to confine in or place on” (enshrine; enthrone; entomb); “to cause to be in” (enslave; entrust; enrich; encourage; endear); “to restrict” in the manner named by the stem, typically with the additional sense “on all sides, completely” (enwind; encircle; enclose; entwine). This prefix is also attached to verbs in order…