Joy. It’s that elusive something that we’re all sort of wanting to find, wanting to hold, wanting to keep close and keep forever.
It’s not the same as happiness. I tell you this just in case you hadn’t heard. But I think you probably have.
I think you probably already know, somewhere deep inside where wisdom sits, that happiness comes and goes with situations, but joy? Joy’s deeper. Joy’s not dependent on the way the day’s going or on whether the weather’s nice.
Joy sits in the seat of your soul and grounds you and when you feel it you know and you love and you know that you’re loved and you know Love.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again and again – I searched for joy for a hundred thousand years in a hundred thousand places before I finally figured out that joy is not somewhere else and it’s not sometime else, but it’s always here and it’s always now.
This moment, this breath, this place and this space in which I find myself in this now, is always where I will find joy.
This moment is all there is. (~Rumi)In this moment, and only in this moment, because this moment is all that there really is.
And yeah, this space and this now and this moment are not always ideal. I don’t have to tell you that. You know that. You know that like you know the back of your hand. Life doesn’t always happen happy, and there are times that can try men’s, and women’s, souls something fierce.
But even in these times, the trying times and even the cryin’ times, there’s something. A glimmer of hope. A knowing that this too shall pass.
A still small voice saying trust Me…you will get through this, whatever it is, and you won’t be defined by this, destroyed by this, or derailed by this, and when you know this? You’ve found a bit of joy.
A still small voice saying trust Me…it’s true, you might just get derailed by this but the truth is that that’s exactly where you need to be so you can hop on some new rails, some better rails, and when you realize that doors are going to open now that you’re open to them? You’ve found a bit of joy.
Once you know that this day was too hard – way too hard – but you made it through and you will make it through the next one and the next one and the next one, you’ve found a bit of joy.
And the truth is that despite everything, you can choose joy.
“Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.” (~Marianne Williamson).Or not.
You can choose to see the failures, the faults, the stress and the sorrow. Choose to focus on those things.
Or you can choose to see the sunrise. The sunset. The smile of a stranger. The strength of those who get back up time and time again when circumstances knock them down. The love of God.
Beauty, smiles, graces, strength, love.
It’s really up to you, and me, you see – to see. Or not to see.
That joy surrounds us.
~xo,
LuAnne
