What If NDG Became a Neighbourhood That Made Room for Joy?

 

There are many serious things we want to accomplish in NDG.

We want to reduce loneliness.

Help people who are struggling.

Make food more accessible.

Strengthen families.

Support seniors.

Create opportunities for young people.

Build stronger relationships between neighbours.

All of these things matter enormously.

But while we're busy trying to make life better, I don't want us to forget something equally important:

Life is supposed to be enjoyed.

What if one of the defining characteristics of A NuVo World in NDG became something wonderfully simple?

We create more reasons for people to smile.

Not once a year at a major festival.

Everywhere.

All the time.

Imagine walking through NDG on an ordinary Tuesday and discovering a man playing piano outside a café.

A few blocks away, three children have covered a sidewalk with colourful chalk drawings.

Someone has placed a bubble machine beside a park bench.

A retired couple is teaching people how to dance.

A restaurant has moved a few tables outside and a local guitarist is playing for whoever happens to pass.

Someone sets up a giant chessboard.

A group of teenagers starts an impromptu basketball challenge.

A neighbour brings a speaker into the courtyard of an apartment building and announces:

“Ten-minute dance break!”

Nothing is being sold.

Nobody needs a ticket.

Nobody needs to register.

Something delightful is simply happening.

I think communities need this.

We spend enormous amounts of time discussing people's problems—and rightly so.

But human beings need more than solutions to problems.

We need laughter.

Music.

Play.

Beauty.

Surprise.

Celebration.

We need moments when we forget whatever has been worrying us and simply think:

“This is fun.”

Children understand this instinctively.

Give children an empty patch of grass and within minutes they invent something.

Adults somehow forget.

We begin believing that play is something we outgrow.

I would like A NuVo World to challenge that idea.

Imagine if residents throughout NDG occasionally created tiny Pop-Up Joy Moments.

Nothing complicated.

Put some music on and invite people to dance.

Bring a chessboard to the park and put up a sign:

PLAY ME.

Blow bubbles for children.

Set up an easel and invite strangers to add something to a community painting.

Bring a guitar outside.

Organize a spontaneous street hockey game.

Put a bucket of sidewalk chalk somewhere with a note:

MAKE NDG BEAUTIFUL.

Hang colourful ribbons from a tree.

Create a tiny neighbourhood treasure hunt.

Leave a basket of dog toys beside the dog park.

Tell jokes.

Sing.

Dance.

Play.

Because something wonderful happens when people experience joy together.

Strangers stop being strangers for a moment.

Someone laughs.

Someone joins in.

Someone takes a photograph.

Someone tells another person about it.

And an ordinary corner of NDG suddenly becomes memorable.

So today's A NuVo World challenge is different from most.

Don't solve anything.

Don't organize anything important.

Don't have a meeting.

Simply ask:

“How could I create five minutes of joy for somebody today?”

Perhaps you'll make one person laugh.

Perhaps you'll make ten.

Perhaps you'll make yourself laugh.

That counts too.

Because the NDG we are building shouldn't merely be efficient, safe, compassionate and connected.

It should be alive.

A neighbourhood filled with music.

Colour.

Children playing.

Adults playing too.

Unexpected laughter.

Little celebrations.

And people occasionally wondering:

“What wonderful thing is going to happen around here today?”

If we're going to build A NuVo World, let's make sure it isn't merely a better world.

Let's make it a world people are absolutely delighted to wake up in.

Today, create a little joy.

Then leave it behind for somebody else to discover.

A NuVo World — creating a NuVo, better world one day, one person and one joyful moment at a time.