REFLECTIONS ON JOY

Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.”  

-Robert Louis Stevenson

I have always been a person who knows how to experience JOY. I am grateful to have stumbled upon those things that light me up many years ago. My family exposed me to varying slices of life which helped me understand where my interests lay. Even now, many years later, I can name you any number or activities and experiences that would bring me so much JOY that my cup would runneth over and over and over...

Now if you were to ask me how often I make the time to experience these JOY - filled, cup-runnething-over moments ( all known and readily available to me), I would say:

Ummmm...Well...Hmmm...So, here's the thing...

I have been considering more deeply how I prioritize my own JOY ever since I had the privilege of gathering with 10 beautiful and curious women to talk about their relationship to their own happiness...a happiness not found in others but inside of themselves. These conversations got me thinking about where I have placed my own JOY, and I have realized that I have left it in memories. My true, raw, and honest delight has very little place in the present life I have created.

I was inspired by each participant's desire to understand why personal JOY had fallen either to the bottom or completely off of their list of life priorities. My workshop, SPARKING JOY, was an invitation to honor the value of their own personal bliss. As we all opened up to the process of discovery, we meditated on JOY and had yummy snacks. We drank fancy tea and admitted to one another that we put everyone else's JOY ahead of our own. We held heart shaped pieces of seed paper and committed to cultivating our own JOY from a garden of self worth and self love. I learned so much from each woman's courage and honesty.

In self reflective moments, I can see how I have used the part I play in others' JOY as a substitute for my own wonder. I have let their happiness wash over me, convincing myself that it is enough. My soul has always known that it isn't nearly enough. At the end of the day, we all have a unique and stunning light to shine out into the world.The fuel we use is love, and the spark for that fuel is JOY.

I am more grateful than I can properly express when I am able to facilitate the path to JOY for those I teach, treat, and love. And yet, if I cannot first center in my own delight, then I truly believe that I am missing out on an authentic opportunity to experience my divine birthright...that same birthright I support and empower for everyone else.

I miss my JOY. The glimpses I offer myself are just a taste, and I want more. I want my life to be a banquet of JOY.

My dearest wish for all of you is that you believe that your JOY is worthy and valuable and important. If each of us fill up on JOY and reflect that energy out into the world...the possibilities are endless in what we might see. xx