MY OCTOBER 24 INSTAGRAM POST:
What a strange yet wonderful month it has been this far. Usually, October is a big month of posting for me. My favorite time of year. Fall colors. Wonderful travels. Great traveling companions. All that has been true. But the month started off with the wallop of Hurricane Helene — no power, cell, water for over a week and devastation all around — so that even when I was on the road, speaking and leading our incredible Price Poe Tour, the situation in Western North Carolina was always on my mind.
Tomorrow we’ll be kicking off our #hendoween fundraisers that I’ve been working on all month — so, before I post about that and also start sharing some of this month’s fave photos — I wanted to find one photo that somehow encapsulates my biggest takeaway from all I’ve learned from my neighbors, my traveling companions, working on recovery efforts, traveling, talking about my dad and more.
It’s the same thing I keep learning: Joy is not optional.
It often feels like it is. Like being worried busy stressed anxious about the world, our lives, our neighbors, our bank accounts, disasters or politics is what we should be doing. It’s not.
Desmond Tutu said: “It helps no one if you are sacrificing your joy because others are suffering. We people who care must be attractive, must be filled with joy, so that others recognize that caring, that helping and being generous are not a burden, they are a joy.”
This photo was taken at the University of Virginia in front of Edgar Allan Poe’s dorm room. He only stayed a semester because he ran out of money. He kept running out of money, losing the people he loved, but he never stopped seeking love or doing what he loved — writing.
Sure, people love pointing out the miseries of Poe’s life, but that’s not eally why we remember Poe. We remember what he wrote. The joy we find in his words.
Poe wrote: “It is a happiness to wonder — a happiness to dream.”
Fear wins when we give up on joy. Love wins when we find joy in the challenges. I have to remind myself of that every day. But this picture reminds me that when I am with people I love, bringing others joy, joy radiates back.
That’s Love. That’s healing. That’s the whole point.
In our hearts, we all know this.