Awakening Joy

"For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair."   - Ann Morrow Lindberg A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said. "I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. "Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone." Deep happiness and well-being can seem a most elusive grail of the human journey.  We know about the fleeting happiness that comes and goes according to external circumstances that rise to meet and eventually betray expectations. This is happiness on the world's terms and it is good as long as it lasts but it always demands something to shift or change that is often outside our control.  Such happiness is frustrating, and to the uninitiated seeker acts like a carrot suspended in front of the horse that keeps one pursuing it but never reaching satisfaction. Real joy is deeper than happiness from external circumstances. Like the peace "that passes human understanding," the well of joy within us is not circumstance dependent but part and parcel to our essential spiritual nature. We come to know this deep well being by our own experience of joy "for no reason" or we're persuaded by the many accounts of those who have realized authentic joy and well being in the midst of great difficulty. Joy is our birthright. Yet, just as we use only a fraction of our mental capacity, we have greater capacity for joy than we express. This is good news because the well-being we seek is already at hand. Of course it also places responsibility with us for realizing more of it in our lives. How do we cultivate greater joy in our lives through all of life's changes and challenges?  This is the subject of our fall series, Awakening Joy, based upon the book of the same name by James Baraz. Over the next 7 weeks we will explore behaviors and attitudes we can cultivate that can bring us greater well-being into our lives. I've been through the book, and worked with the insights and practices and can tell you this is an eminently practical Journey of Awakening that can produce real and lasting positive effects for anyone. Join us this Sunday as we begin with the first topic, Inclining The Mind Toward Joy. It is fitting to begin our journey with the destination and a heading that matches. We'll begin by leaning into joy as an intention, and see how it makes a difference. You may be amazed, as I was with how even this slight attitudinal shift can make your day brighter.