Definition: a delight in being alive; carefree, buoyant enjoyment
Derivation: French, “joy of living”
Quotes:
• Do not lose joy in life as you grow old in years. Let not your joie de vivre be crushed under the weight of years. — Zoroaster (c. 1,000 BC) Founder of the first documented monotheistic religion
• Photography can fix eternity in a moment. There is such intensity in an image, such spontaneity, such joie de vivre, such miraculousness, that even today it still bowls me over. — Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) was a French photographer & artist
Comment: Living is not often as joyous as the idiom implies. None-the-less it is worth trying to make the best of what comes. Every experience is valuable in some way. It involves one’s whole being.
Symbol: a full head of hair