It’s funny, there is no shortage of people, books, and inspirational quotes that tell us that we need to find and create more joy in our lives. There is no shortage of ways in which we could also convince ourselves that we can’t do that. There is war, famine, political troubles, and it’s hard to pay our bills. Just one excuse after another. And I do mean excuse.
We put more emphasis on the world outside of us then we do inside of us. We look at the world and wish it were different. We wish our lives were different. We wish and wish and wish. I know I have. I have looked at every circumstance in my life and blamed it for my unhappiness. Things from my past that I thought had broken me. Things in my future that I didn’t have. Money I wish I had. Debt I wish I didn’t. Family.
When we prescribe what we need to be happy, whatever it is, it’s in effect saying that it’s impossible to be happy now. To be joyful now. To appreciate all of the things that are in our lives right now.
We will never be happy in the wanting of something.
That’s just the truth of it.
So, the question becomes how can we be happy now? How can we bring more joy into our lives now? I was driving this morning and as I pulled into the parking lot of the coffee shop I was going to work at I realized that I had been lost in thought. Thought about nothing that mattered, I imagine. I can’t even remember what I was thinking about. But it was early, and it was dawn. The sky was cloudy and the mountains behind me and the sky around me were bursting with the soft prink that only arrives in the morning. I parked my car and just looked around taking it all in. That moment was a conscious moment of joy. Later I was listening to a song that I loved, and I teared up because I really let myself listen to it, not just hear it. That was a moment of conscious joy.
When we are in the throes of darkness, we can still find these small moments to be fully present and experience the joy that is accessible to us all the time. There are moments available to us every day that, if we allow them, will take us out of our everyday lives and allow us to experience the beauty that is all around us.
Find these moments. Create these moments. Be available for these moments. Close your eyes and breathe just one breath. Feel it enter you, feel it leave you. Open your eyes. Does the world look a little different now?
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