what is joy?
are there as many shades of meaning as there are people on the planet?
dictionary definition=a feeling of great pleasure and happiness
by jove!
I’m finding joy everywhere
and like Henny
joy is presence
rain or shine
steak or pbj sandwich
alone chewing a bone or chased by a smiling pack of pooches when stick is clasped in your jaw
joy is embracing life
full stop
I was recently prompted to consider joy as terrifying with this short clip of Oprah and Brene Brown. They offer an idea of foreboding joy—holding joy back because you expect the fates to snatch it away.
Yes…AND…
Digging a little deeper into my own experience, I’ve always had a sense that joy makes people uncomfortable. Is that jealousy? fear? a control mechanism?
I’ve both experienced and played the roll of Angie in my life…(repeating clip of Pollyanna’s glad game—if Haley Mills and Walt Disney knew how much they impacted my life, they’d surely feel joy!)
In the movie Footloose, rebellious teens danced for joy despite a culture of fear and shame.
In yoga, I learned the concept of mudita.
Tuesday night on the mat, with wall’s assistance, I managed forearm stand.
I felt joy.
On mat next to me, new friend was challenged and I offered stabilizing hands to assist.
She got up!
I felt even greater joy.
You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give. ~Winston Churchill
Hi ho! My early, hasty departure from home Thursday morning must have catapulted me over this fine letter. The stick is firmly clasped in my jaws. Now if I could just run like Henny! A friend used to observe that we must "give it away to keep it." Both your story and your actions covey that!
My greatest joy comes through service to others. I built my life around that joy very successfully. I was so lost when I needed a redefinition of that piece of myself. In service work also comes huge responsibility, ethic's, boundaries, and love. The love has to be bigger than the self to feel joy vibrate through. Joy is in a marrage with love of self and others. When we lose that path we struggle for a new birth of self. It is tricky to sit within the corners of self where the realness of life lives. Being present is a way to be true to self. Joy lives there. Joy and love live in being present. Recently Thich Nah Haun left his body in the thrid dimention here on earth. I felt the loss momentarily, and then I heard his whisper... You are alive feel it and be in your presence.