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Seeking Adaptive Joy

“Seeking adaptive joy” basically means that I’m doing my best to find the quarantine-approved version of the joy-filled activities I used to enjoy (until I can get back to enjoying the real joy-filled things).

by Jennifer Acker on May 14, 2020

It makes me sad that I can’t participate in the things right now that bring me joy, so I’m doing everything I can to fill those voids with some out-of-the-box ideas. I’m “seeking adaptive joy”. Yes, I did make that phrase up just now, but it works. To me, “seeking adaptive joy” basically means that I’m doing my best to find the quarantine-approved version of the joy-filled activities I used to enjoy (until I can get back to enjoying the real joy-filled things).

The reality is that a lot of us are “seeking adaptive joy” right now. Like the child I talked to a couple of weeks ago who wanted nothing more than to ride a roller coaster, so we rode a virtual roller coaster together while on a zoom Holy Listening call! Like the 50 Children’s Directors across the country who are working together to create a virtual VBS to launch later this summer (more details to come about our project at a later date). Besides helping with this big VBS project, my other big “adaptive joy” journey right now involves music. Two years ago I wrote a blog about how much I love music, all music, especially live music. I’ve had plenty of time to listen to all sorts of music lately, however, live music (which is my favorite kind of music) just isn’t in the cards right now. I’m actually coming to terms with the fact that live music probably won’t be in the cards anytime soon given all the protective measures and restrictions being taken for COVID-19.  I’ve seen some videos online where choirs are singing together in what appears to be a large Zoom-style call and I’ve really enjoyed those. I’ve really enjoyed listening to the FUMC Hurst Genesis Musicians on Facebook Live on Saturday nights. I’ve also enjoyed watching the two Disney Family Singalong specials because I just LOVE seeing groups of people smiling and singing along together. However, one of my new favorite “adaptive joy” activities is to scroll through a website called Playing for Change (which also has a ton of videos on YouTube). Playing for Change has been around since 2002, but I just found out about it last week when a friend shared it with me while we were both lamenting about the loss of live music in our lives right now. A mix of famous musicians and unknown street musicians play the same song but in separate spaces. Some of the videos involved just one musician, but my favorite videos are the ones that are spliced together and the song takes you on a journey to musicians around the world. I love it.

I know that live music isn’t the only joy-filled thing we are grieving right now, there are countless joy-filled things that we are all missing in our lives right now. I hope that you will continue to seek and find adapted versions of the things that spark joy in your life. In the meantime, go on a little virtual journey and check out “Playing for Change” (I’ve put links to a couple of my favorite videos at the bottom of the page).

As far as VBS goes, thankfully there are some incredible visionaries in this world who don’t give up. I am thankful for Leanne Hadley, a great visionary who invited me and about 50 other Children’s Directors to be part of a project that will bring a virtual style VBS into our lives later this summer. I cannot wait to share this adaptive joy experience with you and I can’t wait to hear what adaptive joy journeys you have been enjoying!

Those of you who really do keep up with reading our church blog may remember that my overarching word for 2020 was “NEW” (and I choose a new word every week to compliment it). I had NO idea how “NEW” 2020 would be! And who knows, maybe one of these NEW adaptive joy journeys will lead us to something that is even more joy-filled than the original thing we loved to do!

"See, I am doing a NEW thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" Isaiah 43:19

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