Each day we are given the gifts of joy. Though we experience difficulties and challenges, joy is always there, sometimes standing in a shadow or void, but there beside us none the less. Often when we are caught in our sadness or anger we don't see the joy beside us. But we can learn to see it, always. If we can learn to view life with a grateful heart we can open to viewing the joy in life, no matter what.
I think we can all agree that in order to know happiness we must know sadness. In order to know the feeling of accomplishment we must know hard work. And sometimes we must go through great adversity to experience the marvelous feeling and freedom that joy brings us. So from that we can see that sadness is joy, hard work is joy, adversity is joy and so on. Jesus was a great teacher who taught that God is love (or Love is God). That if we open our hearts to his teachings and love each other BECAUSE of our differences instead of in spite of them, we would see the world through loving eyes and choose to live in the world in love and joy. Mohammed brought us the same message; to love our differences. That to see that our differences were the gift that lent support to the whole. That while each of us brought something unique to the world which filled the gap with a gift that another may not possess, these combined gifts make a strong and supportive whole. Buddha also taught that we are interconnected and that we cannot survive happily when we do not accept each other for our differences. For those very differences are the strength that binds us together. It simply comes down to loving these differences as gifts and that our joy is interdependent on each other's joy. This week I invite you to peek around throughout your days and see if you can spot joy. Is it obviously there in the smile of someone you love? Is it there in the corner waiting to be seen when you feel frustrated or disappointed? Perhaps you can find it in the song of the birds and in the breeze as you dig that ditch to divert the gift of water from the winter rains. You carry it every moment in your heart even as the person driving next to you cuts you off in traffic. No matter what, joy is always available to you even if you have to look deeply to find it. But look none the less. It's there. Invite it out to play. *Joanie Lane is a Meditation Teacher, Reiki Master/Teacher, Spiritual & Life Coach, and Healing Movement Qigong Leader. She lives in Kelseyville, Ca. at her meditation center "A Positive Light". For more information visit her website at apositivelight.com **These are original writings by Joanie. Any quotes by others that have been included have been identified.
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