may joy attend us

and may we always be open to her

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Last Thursday, I received a message from my friend (and now, neighbour!) Susannah Conway. “Love!” she wrote, “Are you around on Saturday? I might be able to snag tickets to A Thing.” Always up for A Thing, I responded with an immediate yes.

And so Saturday, I met Susannah, and we walked into town.

Susannah and me, selfie-ing while waiting in line to get inside.

The Thing, it turns out, was a Paper Festival.

You might be wondering what a paper festival is, and to be honest, before I went, I wasn’t sure either. I’m happy to report that it’s exactly what it sounds like: a festival of paper goods, except far less Dunder Mifflin, far more whimsy. Think journals! Notecards! Stickers! Fountain pens! Letterpress prints! Lithographs! Linocuts! So. Many. Stamps! And even though both Susannah and I are suckers for anything remotely related to journaling and paper art, I don’t think either of us realized how many people locally share the same passion. The line to get in went around the entire building. It was insane.

And wholly charming.

The ceiling of the hall was decorated to look like a starry night, and there was a G I A N T disco ball in the middle. Because of course there was.

Every booth had a stamp, so you could collect their stamps in your journal. Susannah collected so many!

I walked up and down the aisles, spending far more money than I thought I would spend at a paper festival, and yet proud that I actually showed some restraint: there were some really great artists who were featured. As I walked past Rachel Snowden’s booth, one of her greeting cards stopped me cold:

may joy attend you.

“Is this a phrase you made up?” I asked her.

“No,” she said with a grin. “I think was a common holiday greeting from the early 1900s.”

I loved it so much, I bought the card on the spot. And I haven’t stopped thinking about the phrasing.

I’ve long held that joy is fully ours to make, and the cheat code to joy is gratitude: by taking stock of the good things in our day-to-day moments, over time we suddenly discover that we’re living joyful lives. But this phrase — may joy attend you — makes Joy sound like something sentient. Like a Muse, maybe. Something that you don’t have to seek, but that may find you nonetheless, and care for you.

Wouldn’t that be something?

and then, I thought maybe the way we call Joy into our lives is by simply being open.

Maybe Joy comes to us through gratitude, yes, but also by simply being open to possibilities. By saying yes to A Thing even when we’re not entirely sure what the Thing is, but are game to find out.

in other words, maybe curiosity is also a conduit to joy.

Anyway. May joy attend us all this week, friends. And may we be open to her.

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