About

Why so happy?  Er … sad?

This blog gets its title from the William Blake poem, “Auguries of Innocence.”

I originally reserved this name back in January 2009 with the intention of it being a place to talk about our struggles to create a family in the face of unexplained infertility.  Less than a month later, I found out I was pregnant.

I began blogging again a few months after my son was born, under a different name.  Those were deep, dark times — did your baby blues morph into a kind of generalized hatred for all things and all people?  yeah, mine too — but Joy and Woe was still around, patiently waiting for me to remember the password.

Eventually the mental fog lifted, around the time that we re-upped genetically.  Now there are four: me, P and the kids.  Plural!

I call P “P” everywhere, and damned if I’m going to ask his permission before I write about our life.  So leaving out the rest of the letters is a small concession to his privacy and if you know me, you know I’m all about small concessions.

The kids will get called by their real and fake names in equal measure, as is the case in real life.  If they’re not able to find — and hack — this blog by the time they’re in grade school, I shall be gravely disappointed.

But about the name … 3+ years into motherhood, joy and woe are major themes.  I think I chose well.

It is right it should be so:
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know
Thro’ the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

I love mayo!  Also mail.  Shoot me a line at jeni [at] joyandwoe [dot] ca.