How To Cultivate Joy As Easily As Eggplant Or Peppers

My neighbor Suzie and I share a garden bed between our driveways.

I wanted to plant vegetables, but my mother disapproved. She said I should match what Suzie had planted on her side. Since I was skeptical of my mom’s unwritten rules of garden etiquette, I asked Suzie what to plant.

“Whatever brings you joy,” she said.

In that instant, I realized that I could cultivate joy as easily as eggplant or peppers. I went from a limiting, self-negating belief to a generative, expansive, and life-affirming one.

I vowed to study the agronomy of joy.

Joy is not a sparkly fog that descends upon us out of nowhere. We can create the conditions in our lives for joy to take root. We can sow tiny seeds of joy in our hearts and watch them grow like corn stretching skyward.

Let us be scientists studying the ideal growing conditions for joy.

Let us observe, experiment, and replicate the best methods. Let us feel in our animal bodies what gives us pleasure and what makes us happy, then let us do more of that.

Let us practice listening to the faint whispers of our soul’s desire.

Every time we feel a small bubble of happiness, gratitude, or awe break over us, let us break out the champagne and noisemakers.

If we invite joy into our hearts and promise that we will water and nurture it, it will grow strong and lush, a vine entangled in every aspect of our lives, abloom with sweet-scented flowers.

Photo credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705