On a Thursday in June, wearing my ridiculous rainbow heart-shaped sunglasses, I went looking for walnut oil and came home with doughnut bath bombs, a new friend named Brendan, a new friend named Melanie, and plans to deliver a chocolate Clusterf#@k on another Thursday.
That is how Joy Bingo works.
You think you are running errands. You think you are checking things off a list. You think you are being practical, efficient, grown-up, and vaguely responsible. Then life, with its ridiculous sense of humour, starts handing you bonus squares.
A conversation here.
A strange little discovery there.
A laugh you did not expect.
A person whose name you actually remember because something about the moment made it sparkle.
Joy Bingo is the practice of noticing small squares of delight, connection, absurdity, kindness, and surprise in the middle of ordinary life.
That day was what has now become a typical day for this “Zenergizer Bunny” living her best “Zenergy Life.”
So what exactly is Zenergy?
For me, it is not frantic energy, people-pleasing, performative cheerfulness, or pretending everything is fine when it isn’t. Zenergy is sustainable energy: learning what restores us, what steadies us, and what helps us stay present.
Joy Bingo is one of the ways I practice Zenergy. It reminds me to notice the tiny, generous winks from life while doing ordinary things: buying ingredients, making dinner, solving problems, managing logistics, and trying to remember why I walked into a room.
I invite you to play your own version of Joy Bingo.
What small thing gives you a little lift? A little laugh? A little steadiness? A little spark, especially in the middle of an ordinary day?
Maybe it is the friendly cashier, sunlight on the bay, a shared conversation while waiting in line, a moment of calm, a small kindness, a good laugh, a beautiful butterfly, or something so ridiculous it makes you smile or roll your eyes.
Joy Bingo is not about forcing happiness. It is not toxic positivity. It is noticing the little glimmers that bring us back to ourselves. The more we open up to these mini moments of magic, the easier they become to see.
Some days, my Joy Bingo card fills itself to overflowing and I have to start a second card.
Other days do not work that way. Some days, the square you get is simply this: despite the clouds, despite the roller coaster ride of life, despite the weird internal weather, you are still here. Still noticing. Still playing.
That day in June, somewhere between the walnut oil, the Pride glasses, the doughnut bath bombs, and the promise of a future chocolate-peanut-butter survival treat delivery, I realized joy is not always something you plan. Sometimes it is something you notice because you were willing to leave the house, follow the thread, and stay open to the ridiculous little miracles hiding in plain sight.
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