A Message to my Daughter On Her 21st Birthday

"Too much joy, I swear, is lost in our desperation to keep it"

I have been mulling over that quote, tossing it around, letting it percolate, since reading it in a book I read recently (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong). The entire book was magnificent, but for some reason this stuck with me and I went back in the book to find it.  The author credits Zen Master, spiritual leader and poet Thich Nhat Hanh with the quote.

What resonates with me around the possible meaning of that quote is how we hold on desperately to things - ideas, beliefs, feelings, attitudes, people, traditions and belongings, long after they are outdated -  and by that I mean when they stop serving us, adding value or bringing us joy.

I am not suggesting that you Marie Kondo your entire life and starting chucking things out willy nilly, but perhaps taking a personal inventory once in a while would help us move through life a little lighter and happier. We are a clingy bunch, we humans.

Might joy, I wonder, come a bit more easily and frequently should we learn to let go just a little?