For the first time in months, I’m seeing joy return. Friends may have lost it, misplaced it, or had it slowly drained from them with months of the long pandemic. I imagine this feeling felt, in a smaller part, like the parades at the end of wars with balloons and dancing in the street. It was the joy of discovering that there’s a name for what you’ve long been suffering, and more than that, now that it’s named there is also a cure.
I’ve felt the feeling before: first time I recognized suffering and longings in a poem–each word the perfect word, and the relief of ending a bad relationship and the the taste of fresh ripe tomatoes after years of the canned variety.
There is no emoticon for this feeling. It is larger than any gif, and it is contagious. Flag flying, flag saluting, feeling the urge to express, in a clear voice, love for country again, and to hold in celebration all those expressing the same. Years from now, they may not ask where you where in this moment, but you will remember, nonetheless, when finally, after years of asking, finally, it rained.
A Life of Wonder 