Joy Under Siege

Happiness depends too much on weather, money, the body, the
news that arrives, the person who stays. Joy, when it is true, has
another root. It binds itself to spirit, to gratitude, to a force less
obedient to circumstance.

But let us not fool ourselves: joy also demands a fight.
Sometimes we must defend it as one defends a besieged city. We
give up comforts, cross droughts, sleep poorly, eat little, lose
almost everything. But we cannot lose joy. Not that stubborn joy, in
handmade red shoes, walking through the ruins as if it still
remembers how to dance.