I Believe in Joy

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes somethings happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

- Mary Oliver

I spend a lot of time talking about processing our emotions. It’s tough work that we like to avoid. But if we don’t do it, our hearts contract and shrivel up.

Colors lose their vibrancy.
Music becomes dull and routine.
Smiles become robotic, without warmth.

I don’t want that for any of us.

We ALL have to walk through the fire. There is no way around it. The beauty is that we don’t have to do it alone.

That’s why I am here - so you have someone else, just as lost, to hold your hand and say: I’m here.

BUT…

We don’t often talk about what’s on the other side, once we’ve walked through the fire and the healing begins.

The world is a magical place, filled with magical moments. They are in the mundane: when the honeysuckle catches your attention and you think there is no sweeter smell, and it breaks your heart with its beauty.

It’s in the exciting new adventures that wreck us in the best possible way, and we are never the same again.

This is why I do the work.

I want to expand my heart so it can hold all the complicated feelings that life throws at me - and there are many. But also so there’s more room for unimaginable joy because, despite what our painful experiences tell us, joy was never meant to be a crumb.

This earth is our home for a while. And in the wildest parts of our hearts, we can feel how it connects us to everything else.

When we lose that connection to our deepest selves, a shadow crosses over us until it feels like we can barely breathe, like we are barely alive.

But that doesn’t have to be where the story ends.

There’s always a choice.

May we all find our way back home to ourselves so that we remember on the other side of pain is a world offering itself to us. All we have to do is say yes to it.

I believe in you.
I believe in me.
And I believe in joy.

Writing Prompt:

How are you neglecting your wild heart and what can you do to nurture it before you burn it all down.