November Project: Final Question #30
This question comes from my wife, Akiko.
What are your TOP 10 joys in life?
Gee, I wonder who is going to make it onto this list? ;)
Well, these lists can never be definitive. We cannot say there is a solid top 10, because there are millions of things we might find joyous.
But really, joy is a gut thing...it is something you feel before thought has a chance to interfere. In other words, joy strikes us as joyous without our need to think it is joyous.
Keeping that in mind, I will just think for a bit, and when I feel that joy rise up on its own, I'll know it is the right direction.
Here we go...and remember, these are things that give me a gut reaction of joy.
In no particular order (although, we all know the best things usually come last):
10. The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
A show children can enjoy, but it was not necessarily made for kids. I think adults probably loved this show more than the kids themselves. And if you've seen it, you probably understand why.
9. Trees
I have loved trees since I was a child. Something tall, stretching out to the sky, alive, and it would not move when I tried to push it. I was fascinated...
I had a favorite tree when I was a child. I wonder if it is still alive?8. Cats
I just can't explain it. Cats love me, and I love them.
7. Francis BaconFrancis Bacon is the first painter to bring the intimacy of the art to Takuin.
The first time I saw his work, I knew it as if I knew the contour of my own hand. It was in that moment, I understood painting.
I don't know why this happened, or why it is his work specifically brought about this realization, but I thank him for it.
A delightful and charming man, full of joy in the eyes of Takuin. Thank you, Francis.
6. Gen
My USA Fender Stratocaster.
5. FlowersI spoke a bit on this topic here and here.
4. Paco de LuciaTHE virtuoso flamenco guitarist of his generation. When I hear him play, the rest of the world is completely shut off. I first heard him when I was a teenager, and my life as a musician was never the same again.
I don't know what I can say about Chopin. Our relationship is long, and becomes richer with each passing year.
Just recently, I finished my collection of Chopin's sheet music, and I now own everything he ever wrote, including all of the posthumous works (even the Devil's Trill prelude discovered a few short years ago...I am a Chopin nerd).
My feeling with Chopin is similar to my feeling with Francis Bacon. There is something so completely transferred when I hear his music; an understanding that is beyond any ability I might have to describe it.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth, so dig out those old records and your gramophone and pay your respects!
This is my favorite pianist, Vladimir Horowitz, playing my favorite Chopin Nocturne, E minor op.72 no.1. This is also the same music Doc Holliday played on piano in the film Tombstone (I told you I am a Chopin nerd).
2. Sakura, Kounosuke, and Hikari
My niece, nephew, and niece.
1. Akiko MinamotoI don't have the words to express the proper amount of joy for this...I'll let Sir Arthur Conan Doyle give it a shot:
To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex...there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory. Dr. Watson in "A Scandal in Bohemia" The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
I guess I feel the same as Sherlock Holmes... ***************
What brings joy to all of you? Post a comment below, as I would love to hear about some of your joys in this life.
Thank you to everyone for making this November Project very special! I'll post on the aftermath of this series in a couple of days. For now, I am going to take a break! ;)
12 comments, since Dece
Beautiful, Takuin! Just absolutely precious.
What brings me joy:
- Seeing people truly in love. - Babies. - Nature in its purity, just peaceful and being what it is. - Laughing so hard that I either snort like a pig or get the hiccups. - Running. Running brings me more joy than I can express. - My son, Gryphon, also brings me more joy than I can express.
~ Nomi
oh ... and horses! ;-) Horses bring me great joy!
Nice list. I would have to add photography
…among many things :)
In no particular order.
A well written phrase or sentence or story.
The way my partner looks like a turtle sometimes when she is focused with her head drawn into her shoulders (you'll have to imagine it).
Children giggling
Doing qi gong (not every time)
Meeting good friends after being away from each other
Getting an idea and how it fits together
That is fantastic, Sarah. Thanks for sharing so much with us...
That includes YOU!
Be good!
Oh Takuin, your nieces and nephew are sooo cute, and they remind me of my own bundle of joy, my nephew :) I knew Akiko would be there on the list, and would be the last, as the best things usually come last :) I wish my spouse would read what you wrote about Akiko!
A lot of what Evan and Nomi have mentioned in their lists is also on my list. And i love walking barefeet on grass. Sweetdishes.. my nephew's pet: a cocker spaniel. I am a somewhat dogphobic peson but that little pup would have none of it, and would make it a point to jump and lick my face. Just writing about her is making me smile :)
Songs. Sometimes even as a desperate prayer when I sing along with a particularly loved song, it takes me away from the horizontal plane.
Rivers... Rivers remind me of my mom. I don't know why. I feel I go to meet them and they come to meet me. It seems the eagerness is mutual. Mountains too. Nice clothes (even if that makes me sound a bit shallow). When i am able to write a powerful, honest and compassionate piece about an issue that deserves attention.
My spouse ( whern he is not being short-tempered).
May be this is not an exhaustive list. May be there are more that i don't realise.
Thanks, Nomi...
Hey, we both forgot to add The Three Amigos!
Horses are beautiful and gregarious creatures...
Thanks, Cedric.
I could have added that one, too! It never crossed my mind... :)
Thanks, Evan.
Those are all quite nice. I particularly like,
I think the not every time is a big part of the joy. ;)
Thanks, A.
You uncovered some others within me, thank you very much! I like the sound of dead leaves in the autumn, in two different ways. First, I like the sound of walking on them...that crunchy sound like walking on breakfast cereal. And second, the sound those same leaves make when blown down the street by the wind; a pleasant, scratchy sound.
And today I was out and saw an owl. We were very close together and he was staring at me. He looked sleepy, and he kept winking at me with his right eye. He was a small, little guy, slightly larger than a paperback book. That gave me a feeling of joy.
Seeing and hearing all the things that bring people joy is making me feel...joyful :-) I also love cats! And that Chopin Nocturne left me speechless… As for me, there are too many to mention, but here are a few that come to mind at the moment:
Björk is one of those artists that touches me in a way that is difficult to explain. Maybe it's her other-worldy music and visuals, her child-like spirit, and her sincere love of pop art combined with her connection to ancient wisdom and nature. When I first saw and heard her, it was as though she was speaking to a part of me that had been hidden for so long. From her work, Joga and Bachelorette are among many favorites.
The night sky. The moon, the stars, the infinite darkness, everything. So quiet, so vast, so mysteriously beautiful.
My mom and dad. I am closer to them than to anyone else. Their love and support never seem to waver, even if we may not always understand each other. (Somehow I feel like there's something in us that understands each other even when we don't understand each other.)
Human beings filled with love, light, and devotion to Truth, like the people who make this website so wonderful ;-)
And now for a rousing rendition of "My Favorite Things." All together now... :-D