Tara: [00:00:00] Welcome to Holy Shenanigans. I'm your muse, Tara Lamont Eastman, pastor, podcaster, and practitioner of Holy Shenanigans. You might be curious what it means to be a practitioner of holy shenanigans.
Tara: For me, practicing holy shenanigans is paying attention to the sacred happenings in everyday life. I'm so glad to have you along for this adventure that I call Holy Shenanigans podcast. THis Advent, I am inviting friends from First Presbyterian Church of Jamestown to come and join me and have a conversation about the theme of the week. It is a very wonderful [00:01:00] week for us in the season of Advent. It is finally, finally joy week. I am very excited today to have two special guests with us. Lydia and Eve Cushmall, who I know from First Presbyterian Church in Jamestown, New York.
Tara: I was wondering Lydia and Eve if you could let us know a little bit about who you are,
Lydia: I'll go first, I guess. I'm a senior at Chautauqua Lake High School and I'm really into music and reading and running and spending time with the people I love.
Eve: I'm Eve, and I'm a freshman at Chautauqua Lake High School, and I do track, swimming, and the musical.
Tara: So is there anything in particular that brings you a lot of joy?
Lydia: FOr me, I think it's what I said, spending time with the people I love, whether that's Eve or my friends or my family. Just being with the people who I can really be myself with is what brings me a [00:02:00] lot of happiness.
Eve: I feel like it's mostly the same thing. I like to spend time with the people that make me happy, and I like to do the things that make me happy with them.
Tara: Wonderful. Thank you so much. So in 2018, I wrote a series of poems for Advent, and I'm very excited to have you be sharing this with us in worship this coming Sunday. But I want to read this to you and we'll just have a conversation about what you hear and maybe some different ways that joy shows up in our lives. And here's the poem. Just outrageous you. Joy is no wallflower. She, yes she, is bold, sassy, and somewhat fearsome. Joy bursts into the room and won't stop grooving till everyone is on the dance floor. Her name is short, but her actions are memorable, [00:03:00] causing laughter to tears in only the best way. Joy is unstoppable. can't ignore her and you must respect her. She is just. She is outrageous. She has one candle for each letter of her name. Joy will break through all barriers and bring her colorful wonder to you and to you and to you. And to Y O U, you, just, outrageous, you, joy. I wonder if you have ever met a person that walks into a room with that kind of joy.
Eve: Yes one of my friends actually, I feel like, impersonates that. Her name's Jersey. Whenever she walks in the room, everyone immediately smiles.
Tara: maYbe you can share this with her.
Lydia: I kind of think of my grandpa, my dad's dad, because he's just, he's so optimistic and he's always [00:04:00] smiling and he's the most like grateful and loving person I've ever met. You just can't help but feel happy when you're spending time with him, I feel.
Tara: When I think of joy, I think of my grandfather on my mom's side. He had a kind of laugh that just carried throughout whatever space he was in. He could make. Anything out of soda bottles and wire and his imagination. He had a wonderful singing voice. And so when I think of joy, I think of, my grand pap done.
Tara: And hopefully embody some of what he gave to me years ago. He made a big difference in my life. And so, that's the person I think of that. Showed me what it is to be joyful. And I wonder if you have a story, of how joy made a difference in your life.
Lydia: I don't think I have any specific instances. I think it's just kind of a lot of tiny things where maybe I'm feeling sad or I'm really disappointed with how [00:05:00] I like performed and whether it was like a track me or on a test. But then usually it's when I'm with the people I love, they'll just kind of remind me of why I'm happy to be living the life I'm living.
Lydia: And then I kind of realized it doesn't matter as much as I thought it did. I
Tara: Sometimes those messengers of joy really help reorient our day, don't they?
Eve: Life can sometimes be really overwhelming and crazy, but I feel like especially around Christmas time when we go on vacation and we get to see all our family, it's just sort of like a break from everything and like resets us.
Tara: Mm hmm. I think that is one of the gifts of these holiday seasons. It can be very easy to get very busy. And I know that there's probably even in this week before the break, you probably have concerts and tests and finals and papers and all of those things. So I am very grateful for you taking some time to have this conversation about joy.
Tara: But I hope that this even is a space for [00:06:00] joy for both of you. And I know that the stories you've already shared will bring joy to the people that listen to this conversation. So I just want to say thank you so much for taking this time.
Eve: Thank you.
Tara: If you could imagine the folks that are listening to our conversation, if you had some message of joy that you would like to share with them. What would you like to say?
Lydia: think maybe the joy can always be found. I feel like a lot of times we like to. micromanage our lives or like stress out about something that seems like it's a huge deal. And maybe it is a big deal, but also kind of, even for me, after I've had a huge breakdown about whatever's going on in my life, , I'm able to take a step back and look at it in a different perspective and remind myself that it'll get better.
Lydia: And then also that I have so much to be grateful for, you know, so I think. If you just acknowledge that something went wrong or that you were disappointed by something, but then just also [00:07:00] acknowledge the fact that you have always there's something to be grateful for, or something to be happy about.
Eve: There are always going to be things you have to do that you're not gonna maybe see any joy in, but I think finding the balance between things you like to do and things you have to do, but maybe don't like to do and focusing on the good things that you're doing every day.
Tara: Those are some very good examples of glad tidings to share with the folks that are listening. So Lydia and Eve, why is joy important. Do you?
Lydia: For me, I guess it kind of feeds my soul. I don't know. I feel like anyone can't really live without joy because kind of, like I said before, if you're feeling sad about something or disappointed in yourself. you do something that makes you joyful or spend time with people who bring you happiness, then you're kind of refilling your cup in a way.
Eve: YEah, I feel joy is how you can get through certain things. Like if you're feeling sad or [00:08:00] something, you just have to find joy in the situation and it'll improve it.
Tara: I've had a practice for several years now of paying attention to little things around me. Things that are beautiful or things that I am grateful for. I was out shopping earlier today and when I was walking out into the parking lot I looked up to the sky and the clouds were pink. Like the sun was hitting them just in a perfect way.
Tara: So they were bright and fluffy and pink and the color for joy. Sunday is pink. It's this reminder to pay attention and to look up and to look around us and to see these. Small and big things of joy that can make a difference in our lives.
Lydia: I really like the idea of finding joy in the little things. The sky thing kind of got me because sometimes I'll look up at the sky and I see like the sunlight shining through the clouds. And [00:09:00] that to me is kind of like how I picture heaven I guess just because it just makes me happy
Lydia: like, too beautiful for the earth, almost.
Tara: Yeah. , it felt a little unearthly to walk out and see bright pink clouds this afternoon. And I'm grateful for it.
Lydia: Yeah.
Tara: THere is an old church chorus . And it's not anything to do with Advent, but it goes like this. I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, down in my heart, down in my heart. I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay.
Lydia: That's actually the melody of, so Chautauqua has a children's school in the summer, I've been a teacher there for like the past five years, and Eve volunteered there last year, and that's the melody of the children's school song,
Tara: Oh! Yeah.
Lydia: a lot of joy, so.
Tara: Would you mind singing it for us?
Lydia: Sure [00:10:00] ready Eve?
Eve: Yes.
Lydia: I've got the children's school enthusiasm down in my heart. We're up in my head. We're down in my toes.
Eve: I've got the children's school enthusiasm all over me. I'm coming back next year, you bet!
Tara: Well, that is indeed a joyful tune and something I think that will carry us through the rest of Advent Lydia and Eve I have to say it is a joy to talk with you today and for you and for our holy shenanigans listeners who are always looking for the sacred in the everyday, may you be blessed, may you be at peace and may you be joyful knowing that you are always beloved.
Tara: Thank you for joining us.
Eve: Bye, thank
Lydia: you. I'm your Holy Shenanigans muse, Tara Lamont Eastman. Thank you for joining us this week for Holy [00:11:00] Shenanigans that surprise, encourage, redirect, and turn life upside down, all in the name of love. This is an unpredictable spiritual adventure that is always sacred, but never stuffy.
Tara: Thanks to Ian Eastman for sound production and editing. Also, thanks to you, HSP listeners for supporting our work with this podcast by way of www. buymeacoffee. com backslash Tara L Eastman