Kon Mari employs the phrase “Does it spark joy?”
Sparking joy is the tipping point when one cannot decide if something should be kept. if the answer is no, than out it goes. That’s the short side of it at least.
Sparking joy can mean many, many things.
I have not been happy with my gloves all winter. For years, I wore a pair of Brooks Brothers brown leather gloves. They had a warm and soft cashmere lining. I actually wore them out-I am proud that I did not lose them! When the cost of new ones from BB was to expensive, I replaced them with a pair of vintage Neiman Marcus ones that I thought would be a good second choice. I looked forever for these online in my size and at a price I could afford. Time and money had been spent!
However, this pair of gloves left me disappointed. They were not warm at all. Desperate, I would pull my fingers to my palm; as I attempted to consolidate them like a mitten would. My fingers felt like icicles when they hit my palms. My hands still froze. My pockets alone gave me more relief than these gloves!
I was done. They would be finding a new home after this winter. I was done with anything dressy going forward, too. They did definitely NOT spark any joy at all!
Until yesterday morning when I could not find them. I did not recall wearing them all weekend. I looked in bags and coat pockets. Nope. I had strong hope for the office, but nothing. They were truly gone.
It is the end of February, so good luck finding any new ones in the shops; especially since I have really tiny hands-so tiny that when my son was eight his hands were bigger than mine! I was out of gloves for the season.
Those not-so-warm gloves did provide protection. The metal stair rail stung my hands. I also recalled how they saved my hands when I fell earlier this winter. The gloves have a forever-scrape across the palm. I hit a tree grate and body slammed into a salty puddle of melted ice. Now, I did not have any gloves at all and no way of getting another pair. For now, I was really stuck!
In that moment, I understood that something that you truly do not like can still spark joy. Something, in this case, is better than nothing.
Joy has a variety of meanings. It can be a feeling of security; or a feeling of “at least I have that.” It is not about explosions of glittery euphoria all the time! Function does truly impact it!
Speaking of sparking joy, I remembered on my way home last night that I did indeed wear a coat on Saturday. Sunday was a jean jacket day, but Saturday was still coldish and windy. I had opted for my vegan leather spy coat with the faux lamb collar. I hung up my parka, reached in the pocket of Saturday’s coat choice and found my gloves!
They may not be warm and they are scraped from the fall, but they are gloves that give me a little protection when I need it. They really do spark joy now!