We rarely perceive it, yet many of us treat joy as if it were a form of currency. We save it, we bargain with it, we grant ourselves fragments only after earning the right. This habit, disguised as discipline, imperceptibly shifts life into an economy of waiting.
To postpone joy feels prudent, a promise to enjoy later, when things are “in order”, but that later keeps receding. It slips beyond each finished task, each achieved goal, until the present becomes merely preparatory. What was meant to be lived turns into something to be managed.
Joy, by nature, was never meant to be conditional. It is not a wage paid for endurance or productivity. It is the living thread that keeps our days whole. When we defer it, our sense of life begins to thin; beauty remains visible but no longer felt.
We spend years mastering efficiency and restraint, but seldom the art of allowing. Perhaps joy requires that: a willingness to stand unguarded before life, to perceive and receive what is already here; a readiness to meet existence without the constant negotiation between duty and desire.
From here, joy no longer waits at the end of effort. Meaning no longer depends on resolution; it exists in motion, in the ongoing act of being.
When joy is free to exist, living ceases to feel preparatory and reveals itself as purpose fulfilled. It feels like reaching a truth that was always near, and at last allowing it to be spoken: Viva la Vida!
Viva la Vida is Durca’s life-affirming invitation to live with presence and delight. Through chocolate, we explore the possibility of allowing pleasure to exist without apology: to taste what our land gives, to feel connection through craft, and to let meaning arise from every act of creation.
This is your turn to take part in the beauty of your own life, welcome delight and rediscover joy.
From our Maison in Ecuador,
Durca
A house built to celebrate the art of being alive.