Island City Days is one of those weekends when our little island comes alive. People come home, families get together, friends reconnect, and for a couple of days there’s something happening everywhere you look.
This year, I spent it with my people. My kids were here for the weekend, I had time with Mom, and my besties and I got in some much-needed therapy and cackles.
I helped judge the parade, and there were some amazing entries for this year’s Pirates of Pool 13 theme. People were having so much fun, and you could feel that energy all along the parade route. Luckily, the parade was almost over when a big storm blew through and briefly put a damper on things, but once it passed, the fun picked right back up.
On Saturday, Mom and I enjoyed a delicious pancake breakfast put on by our volunteer fire and ambulance crews, and it was so good. Later, I listened to music, watched people dance, cheered on the cardboard boat regatta, and my daughter and I even had a caricature done together, because nothing says quality mother-daughter time quite like letting a stranger exaggerate your facial features. 
That night, I sat with my kids and Mom and watched an amazing fireworks show light up the sky. It’s always been one of my favorite parts of Island City Days, and I know none of us could help but notice who was missing: Dad.
Maybe that’s why I paid a little more attention to everyone around me this year. Families lined the streets, kids scrambled for parade candy, friends pulled up chairs and visited, and people danced, laughed, cheered, and enjoyed being with their people.
There was so much joy around me that I couldn’t help but absorb some of it myself.
Joy by osmosis. Maybe that’s a thing, or at least I’m making it a thing.
Because there’s something about being surrounded by people who are genuinely enjoying themselves that rubs off on you. You don’t have to be the one dancing or leading the party. Sometimes you can simply sit there, take it all in, and feel your own tank filling back up.
Grief has a way of making you notice who’s missing, but I think it also makes you more aware of who’s still sitting beside you. This weekend, surrounded by my people and an entire community enjoying theirs, I felt both.
There’s something about a community sharing an experience that recharges the soul. For a couple of days, people with different lives, opinions, worries, and struggles came together and shared something good.
I think the world could use a little more joy by osmosis right now. More reasons to gather that have nothing to do with what we disagree about, more chances to laugh together, and more opportunities to let somebody else’s happiness rub off on us.
So if your tank is running a little low this week, maybe you don’t have to manufacture joy. Go somewhere it already exists. Spend time with people who make you laugh, sit where people are having fun, and let yourself be part of something good.
Maybe a little joy will rub off on you too.
Anyway…off we go.
© Erica Shoemaker | Anyway… Off We Go
