The Joy of Six

Some people have names that perfectly suit them and although I’ve never met Joy of the Joy of six blog, I suspect said emotion is something she has in abundance. You can feel the good cheer popping off every page of her blog.

As to the “of six” part of her blog name, she explains that it is:

“…the number I seem to ‘do things in.’ You know - eat M & M’s in sixes, buy things in sixes, dole things out in sixes. It’s a shame the number one wasn’t my obsession, especially when it comes to the M & M’s and buying things. Why six? Here’s the simple part - it represents the six people in my immediate family…”

Which includes her four children, one of whom is Jory Des Jardins of Pause, a founder and organizer of Blogher. It tends to get confusing when you get email from both mother and daughter: more than once I’ve read a note from Joy thinking it was Jory and vice versa.

Joy is a prolific poet who reminds me a little (for those who are old enough to remember) of Ogden Nash, and even when Joy isn’t so joyful about something, she finds a way to make it fun.

UnenJoyment
Checking out some jobs today
Sending them my resume
All the stuff that I dread
All wrapped up inside my head

Nice to have the extra dough
Is it worth it? I don’t know
Unemployment is a mess
Don’t like feeling all the stress

Just got started on my blog
Don’t want to think about a job
Wish I could work from my house
Don’t like to be a lousy spouse

You’re not always in control
Some may think that I’m too old
Cannot worry what they say
Count my blessings every day

See what I mean? You just can’t keep Joy down. She and I also share a love of storms, which you can read about here.

It’s hard to know how she finds the time, but Joy is a prolific blog commenter with always a good word for everyone.

Joy’s stories are terrific, but most of all I like her poems in which she turns the small episodes of life and family into rhymes of well - joy. Here’s part of one:

The Money Tree
The money tree, the money tree;
Hello, it’s me….apparently.
A dollar here, five dollars there;
It vanishes into the air…

And part of another:

Voila, It's Poetry!
I sat down;
I think to write some words.
I felt the flow begin.
That feeling of creation
That blocks out every whim.

…

And, sitting back in final glance,
I’m sure of what I see.
A single word that knows its place…
Voila, it’s poetry!

And there is one without a title I have copied out in its entirety. It just seems to belong here on Time Goes By:

They say that growing older
is just an attitude.
I choose to laugh right in its face…
no time to sit and brood.
It happens to us all you know,
and though it isn’t fair;
It slowly creeps into our lives
with Aarp and Medicare.

I’ve heard, “with age comes wisdom;”
how nice to be so wise.
I’d like to be the “codger” who
invents cellulite-less thighs.
And grey-less hair, and painless backs,
and that “old-age albatross”…
My favorite…what was that again?...
oh yeah, no more memory loss.
And what great mind made “age spots;”
now what are they about?
I freely embrace “laugh lines,”
but leave those “wrinkles” out.

Though the eyes, they may be failing,
and the legs don’t have the give;
It’s a sure-fire bet it’s better
than life’s alternative.
So everyday I’m thankful for
how good life’s really been.
Is that my phone?...I’m coming…(gasp)…
Get out the oxygen!!

Take some time to stop by the Joy of six. You'll enJOY it.