“It didn’t take me long to learn that the discipline or practice of writing these essays occasioned a kind of delight radar. Or maybe it was more like the development of a delight muscle. Something that implies that the more you study delight, the more delight there is to study.”

“Is sorrow the true wild?
And if it is—and if we join them—your wild to mine—what’s that?
For joining, too, is a kind of annihilation. What if we joined our sorrows, I’m saying. I’m saying: What if that is joy?”

I first learned about Ross Gay when I heard his On Being interview (“Tending Joy and Practicing Delight”) last September. I bought this book as soon as the ending credits of the show began. But it wasn’t until my friend Laila raved about it that I actually sat down and started to read.

Ross Gay gave himself a challenge: identify and write about one wonderful thing (nearly) every day for a year. This book is the result. It’s approachable and unabashedly joyful. He doesn’t ignore the painful moments in life – he mentions the 45th president of the US, the tragic loss of a young person in his life – yet he wraps those moments in delicate tissue paper and finds a place for them in a life that strains towards joy.

Gay is a poet and teacher as well as a professional gardener – he’s a founding board member of The Bloomington Community Orchard, a project focused on food justice and joy. This book is full of flowers, tomato plants, bees, and dirt. Isn’t it funny that so many poets are also avid gardeners? Or does the outdoors create poets? Which came first – the poet or the garden? (yes, yes, Eden, etc. etc.)