The Hidden Joy
(2019, © Julia Delaney)
So maybe the gods aren’t laughing at us. Maybe they’re waiting for that moment when we finally stop – stop scrolling for happiness, stop scheduling it for after we’re fixed, stop thinking it’s in someone else’s life.
The search isn’t a “journey” – it’s a joke, and we’re the only ones not in on it.
Because joy isn’t hiding. We are. We’re hiding from the unbearable simplicity that we already have what we’re looking for. Hell, we ARE what we’re looking for.
Right now, in this imperfect moment, with your imperfect life and imperfect everything, joy is sitting inside you. Not waiting for you to be ready. Not waiting for you to deserve it. Just waiting for you to stop running long enough to feel what’s been there since before you learned its name.
The gods hid it perfectly – in the one place we’d never believe something that precious could be: inside someone like you.
The joke’s on us. Or maybe the joke is us, and somehow, that’s the joy of it.
Be Alive 🌱
Love ❤️, Julia
Rhyme & Reason
![[section label="Regret, You Silent Sculptor"] [row style="small" v_align="equal" h_align="center"] [col span="7" span__sm="12" span__md="6" animate="blurIn"] Grooves Regret works in the dark. Chisel and mallet, carving valleys in my chest, grooves in my mind, hollows I didn't know were there until I fall into them. It shapes with "what if," with "if only," with the door I didn't walk through, the call that went to voicemail, the words that sat in my throat and stayed there. It keeps reworking my memories, pressing new grooves over old, until I can't tell anymore which version I lived and which one it made. The groove gets deeper. The chisel returns to the same line. I feel it wearing through and I hold still for it like I'm helping. But my hands are moving too. On different clay. Something regret hasn't touched yet. Two sculptors. Same room. One facing what was. One facing what's here. Neither puts down their tools. [gap height="10px"] [ux_text font_size="0.75" text_align="left"] (2018, © Julia Delaney) [/ux_text] [/col] [col span="5" span__sm="12" span__md="6"] [ux_image id="27223" image_hover="glow" depth="1" animate="blurIn"] [/col] [/row] [/section] The past is already carved. What matters is who's holding the chisel now... Be Alive 🌱 Love ❤️, Julia [section bg="24103" divider_top="waves-opacity" divider_top_flip="0" divider_top_to_front="0" divider="waves-opacity" divider_flip="0"] [ux_text text_align="center"] more from this hour: [/ux_text] [gap] [blog_posts style="default" type="row" col_spacing="xsmall" columns="3" columns__md="1" depth_hover="5" animate="blurIn" ids="27202,8949,27229" show_date="false" excerpt="false" comments="false" image_height="56.25%" image_hover="glow" image_hover_alt="zoom"] [/section] [block id= "poetry"] [block id="disclaimer"]](https://eadn-wc05-15915244.nxedge.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/poetry-about-life-711x400.jpg)
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Hi. I really liked your poem about joy today. Years ago I gave myself a middle name…Joy. The poem resonated deeply with me and my new intentions for the year. 💐🐝
Thank you for your kind words. It warms my heart to know that my writing has resonated with you and that you’ve found inspiration in my poem about joy. Your decision to give yourself the middle name ‘Joy’ is so beautiful!!! Thank you again for reaching out and sharing 💞 it means a lot to me.