Joy

I have always said that joy is an extreme, that I will settle for contentment, but I have to say that lately I have felt much joy.

I have grown accustomed to content. I have a fairly simple formula for it. I simply sit silently and allow perspective to seep into my bones and if I do this long enough my vision clears. Of course there are bound to be moments when this doesn't happen for a while, but they are becoming fewer and farther in between.

Joy has a smoothness, a richness, a texture, a viscosity, that is more than happiness. In comparison, happiness is ice tea and joy is a milkshake. It has a staying power that is able to flow over and around the red peppers and rotten apples without being lost. It doesn't ignore them, or pretend they aren't there, it just doesn't allow them to totally obliterate it.

Joy permeates my life lately and I can't really tell you why. I'm not really sure I can take any credit for it happening either. I am only noticing it.

There have always been joyful people in the world. Sometimes they are confused with fanatics, but I think there is a difference. Fanatics are high on some "thing," or some concept, they require a stimulus. Joy only requires noticing.

Noticing what? That is difficult to explain. I'd love to put on seminars on how to find joy, but it's kind of like that old sarcastic comment, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it." If you need someone to explain joy then you haven't found it yet. I can only tell you what I have done, how I live that seems to bring it to me, but you might be completely different.

In a way, all my thots are about my search for the way, for the energy that fulfills me in ways that are sweet beyond imagining, but these are my ways and you must find your own.