My spirit is free and joyful!

Joy does not take instruction, which is why it can seem unreachable on the days you most want it. But it also never checks first whether the rest of your life is in order.

People report this from the worst weeks they have had: a funeral where somebody tells a story and the whole room laughs properly, the first real laugh in days, and then everyone carries on grieving. Nothing was betrayed. Both things were true at once.

A spirit does not need conditions met. It needs a gap, and gaps turn up in unpromising weeks far more often than anyone expects.