Today I Choose to be Effervescent – How to be Effervescent

Effervescent is one of those words that feels like it should come with bubbles. It’s not just joy—it’s joy that fizzes, sparkles, and spreads until everyone around you feels it too.

I felt that one night in Keystone, Colorado, when all the kids and grandkids were together.

We’d had a big day—sightseeing, skating, everyone exhausted but happy, bundled in matching buffalo plaid pajamas (yes, I’m that grandmother). Someone suggested Pictionary. What started as a casual game to kill time before bed turned into something else entirely.

When the Bubbles Started

Tyler drew something that was supposed to be a giraffe. It looked like a deformed ladder with anxiety. Jesse guessed “existential crisis.” The baby woke up and started laughing at our laughter. Curtis tried to draw “elegance” and created what appeared to be a drunk flamingo.

Within minutes we were doubled over, gasping for air, tears rolling down our cheeks.

The guesses got more outrageous. The drawings got worse. Someone snorted. That made everyone laugh harder. My stomach hurt. My face hurt. Everything hurt from laughing.

The room practically buzzed with energy—you could feel it crackling in the air like static electricity. No one wanted the night to end. Even when we finally called it at 1 AM, everyone was still giggling, still making jokes, still floating on that effervescent high.

The Fizz That Spreads

That’s effervescence. It’s not just joy you feel; it’s joy that bubbles over, spilling into everyone around you until the whole space shimmers with it.

That night in Keystone, it started with one bad drawing and spread like champagne bubbles rising—each laugh creating more laughs, each silly moment sparking three more, until we were all drunk on pure, ridiculous joy.

The Anatomy of Effervescence

I’ve noticed effervescence has certain ingredients:

• Safety to be silly: No judgment, just play
• Shared presence: Everyone fully there, phones forgotten
• Building momentum: Each moment adds to the next
• Permission to overflow: No one trying to contain it
• Surprise elements: The unexpected that breaks you open

That night had all of it. Buffalo plaid pajamas helped (hard to take yourself seriously in matching family pajamas). Exhaustion helped (too tired to be cool). But mostly it was the permission we gave ourselves to be absolutely ridiculous.

Everyday Effervescence

You don’t need a family gathering in Colorado to feel effervescent. I’ve felt it:

In my kitchen, when Curtis and I tried to recreate a complicated recipe and failed so spectacularly we were cry-laughing while smoke alarms blared

At Target, when I ran into an old friend and we ended up having a bizarre cart race in the cleaning supplies aisle (we’re in our 60s)

During a Zoom call, when someone’s cat walked across the keyboard and somehow turned on every filter at once

In traffic, when the whole line of cars started doing the same dance move to the song on the radio

At book club, when we never discussed the book but laughed until wine came out someone’s nose

Why We Need More Effervescence

At 61, I’ve noticed we schedule joy like a dentist appointment. “Fun” becomes an agenda item. We forget that effervescence can’t be planned—it has to be allowed.

We’re so busy being appropriate, professional, contained. We save our fizz for special occasions. But effervescence doesn’t work that way. It shows up in Tuesday afternoons and grocery stores and waiting rooms if you let it.

Creating Space for Sparkle

You can’t force effervescence, but you can create conditions for it:

• Say yes to the silly suggestion
• Let laughs build instead of stifling them
• Join in instead of watching
• Choose play over productivity sometimes
• Surround yourself with people who fizz
• Give yourself permission to bubble over

The Buffalo Plaid Principle

Those matching pajamas became our family symbol for effervescence. Now when things get too serious, someone says “buffalo plaid moment?” It means: Let’s choose silly. Let’s bubble over. Let’s create that Keystone magic right here, right now.

Last week, I was stressed about a deadline. Curtis walked in wearing the buffalo plaid pajamas at 2 PM. Just stood there. I started laughing. He started dancing. The stress dissolved into bubbles of ridiculous joy.

That’s the power of effervescence—it transforms spaces, moments, moods. It’s contagious in the best way.

The Science of Fizz

Effervescence in drinks happens when dissolved gas escapes as bubbles, creating that delightful fizz. Human effervescence works the same way—joy dissolved in your spirit escapes as laughter, energy, spark, spreading bubbles of delight everywhere.

The key is having enough joy dissolved in you to begin with. That comes from:

• Noticing absurdity instead of being annoyed by it
• Choosing play when you could choose productivity
• Surrounding yourself with people who appreciate your fizz
• Remembering that dignity and joy aren’t opposites
• Believing you deserve to bubble over

The Beauty of Being Effervescent

Effervescence doesn’t take perfection, planning, or even much effort. It’s born in the moments when you allow yourself to fully play, to let joy rise to the surface and spill out.

The more you cultivate those bubbles of laughter, lightness, and delight, the more you create an atmosphere that lifts not just you, but everyone near you.

That night in Keystone, in our ridiculous pajamas, failing at Pictionary, we weren’t trying to be effervescent. We just stopped trying not to be. We let the bubbles rise. We let the joy fizz over. We let ourselves sparkle.

The world needs your effervescence. Your fizz. Your sparkle. Don’t save it for special occasions. Don’t wait for perfect conditions.

Put on metaphorical (or literal) buffalo plaid pajamas. Draw terrible pictures. Guess ridiculous things. Let yourself bubble over with joy so pure it makes your stomach hurt.

That’s effervescent. And it’s always, always worth the mess.