Spreading joy

Well, you know, it’s kind of an interesting thing. You’ll recall that on Monday I shared my gratitude for the Encouragers—people in our lives who express unsolicited appreciation for any number of things.

As it happens, I wanted to send a Facebook-and-Twitter friend something particularly beautiful, because he really appreciates art and good design, and I mostly send him the visual equivalent of “Who Let the Dogs Out”.

So I remembered that a few years ago my sister had shared some photos she’d taken, and sandwiched in amongst various shots of cats curled up in emptied-out PC monitors were some absolutely stunning pictures she’d taken of the night-blooming cacti in her front yard.

She’d gone out with a camera, a ladder and a flashlight and just patiently took the most amazing, beautiful pictures.

So I sent one of them.

See what I mean?

He asked if she’d allow him to upload it to Pinterest “Things I Like” board, and the upshot is I ended up sending him another photo as well: a bee. A bee on a flower. A bee on a flower at night.

Later that afternoon I noticed he’d pinned them to his “Art” board, with some pretty amazing (and accurate) comments, which I passed on to my sister.

(You may know that bees are dying off, and scientists haven't been able to figure out what the hell is going on. These photos were shot eight years ago, and my sister said, "Unfortunately, there are so few bees now. Since the flowers only bloom at night and then die, the cacti sounded like a heliport at sunset and dawn. Now they are quiet, most of the flowers without any bees.")

Now, she’d probably have discounted me saying exactly those same things, on account of I’m, you know, her sister. But, as he has no skin in the game except for an appreciation of beauty, she pretty much had to take it in. And it floored her a little bit.

But here’s the deal: I just intended to share something exceptional with a friend, and I ended up making both his day and my sister’s much, much better. And then I was doing the happy dance. Totally win-win.

And, by the way: I really can’t figure out Pinterest, and I certainly don’t need another social media time-suck to distract me from the business of writing, but feel free to pin the hell out of these photos. As my sister says—spread the joy.