Feeling real joy doesn't have to take a life time to achieve. In fact it isn't even anything that you can achieve. Joy is what we are. Joy is what is. We ourselves, or rather our thoughts are what make us feel that it's something you have to work hard and endlessly at in order to obtain. If that is how we think and live our daily lives than we miss out on so many moments of joy that are right before us all the time. Moments we don't even have to do anything to experience, just open our eyes and heart and let the joy unfold like a blurry painting on a chaotic canvas it can become a clear and beautiful masterpiece to treasure.
Let me share an example of one such treasure I saw the other day.
I was sitting outside in my lounge chair on the deck drinking a green smoothie basking in the nice spring weather of the day and savoring each smooth sip through the straw, when my two teenagers discovered me in my secret retreat from the noise of the younger kids and their friends inside the house. Suddenly the peaceful moment I was experiencing by myself immediately multiplied many fold just by seeing them and spending a few moments with them. My daughter sat down on the chair with me and my son stood by as we all looked out on the lawn and commented on all the plastic cups scattered about, evidence of pellet gun targets hit dead on by my talented teenage son. The moment was perfect and full of joy. It only lasted a few minutes and then we all returned inside and went about doing things but the image and feeling of the moment lingered on and on and is imprinted in my heart and mind.
Now a number of things could have happened during that time that might have seemed justified and important but not if experiencing joy is the design and purpose of our life. I could have been annoyed by their interruption in my moment of solitude and felt angry and upset by that. I could have given my son a lecture about not being responsible and cleaning up after himself and rubbed in how he made our yard look like a trash dump, not to mention another lecture on the safety and responsibility of pellet guns or destruction of property. But you know what any of those thoughts would've done, let alone what any action I might have taken on those thoughts would have created? Distress, destruction, and despair! That's what they would have done.
Instead, I didn't even think those thoughts, not one, in fact those thoughts didn't even occur to me until after the moment was already over and I thought back on it with gratitude for not only having experienced the moment but also that I was able to recognize it as a moment of joy. I then expressed even more and deeper gratitude for not allowing myself to ruin it with such thoughts and in turn felt in that moment of recognition even more joy. So you see my joy in that quiet alone time was increased by the mere presence of my teenagers and by my choosing to feel and express gratitude for them and for being their mother.
I had built the frame by creating a single moment of solitude to ponder and look upon the beauties of God's creations which began to transform the blank canvas stretched across it. The teenagers entered and my eyes then saw even more clearly the beauty before me: my children, carried in my womb, created of my flesh, cradled in my arms, growing up in grace and goodness right before my very eyes. The cups all over the lawn, mere objects of plastic that could be easily picked up and replaced at any time with out much strain to one's back or wallet, became living strokes of light radiating through the canvas as comments were made that expressed and recognized the great talent and skill my son possessed and confidence, courage and love were affirmed within him and the beauty beamed brighter, the masterpiece of a single brief moment, clearly seen, deeply felt, and gratefully preserved.
Try it some time. Just live in a single moment. Don't even let thoughts of what you should be saying or doing or trying to teach enter your frame of mind or being. Don't even entertain them. Simply be present, express gratitude for the moment and everything about it and you will experience one of life's little joys.
You can experience a double one if you add the green smoothie to the experience as well. :)
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