A
photo of me from years ago
_________________I have learned early on that joy does not come from without ... that is, from people,
even very dear people, loved-ones, it comes from within, as I could see, when
their eyes sparkled because of some good they discerned. Their joy I would take in so deeply
that I did not loose sight of the sparkle in their eyes, even so I knew it was more than an outer giving
but an inner nurturing of a joy they could feel.
And
at times when I walked through a blooming meadow, again I could feel a joy
bubbling up, a feeling of belonging right there in the midst of the beauty of
that field. Sometimes I would
kneel in the grass and then stretch out in it and looking up into the blue of the
sky, reaching beyond my vision higher and higher. As I would get up and walk to a brook gurgling along with
its crystal clear water, there too I could feel the joy swelling in me and
seeing the little fish swimming by, looking sideways up, as if to say, ”Why is
she here?” Because of joy, I could say! Joy made me step into a shady cool
forest, ah … the stillness. Only a
few rays of sunlight sliding by the trees to make the stillness more
delightful, joy was here --- and from within me it would brake forth, making me
feel as if a deep well was springing up without ever loosing its power to flow
outward.
Joy
is the nectar of Love … and thus we leap with peace-generating joy for All of
God and His beloved living things and beings, may it be a blade of grass or a
singing bird in the bright blue sky. –Eva-Maria
<>
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth
with your feet.
When you
do things from your soul,
you feel a
river moving in you, a joy.
― Rumi
 |
| Jack, Zara, and Kris, walking on Pismo Beach California |
Laughter is wine for the soul –
laughter soft, or loud and deep,
tinged through with seriousness –
the hilarious declaration
made by man that life is worth living.
Dare to love yourself
as if you were a rainbow
with gold at both ends.
Sometimes
your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes
your smile can be the source of your joy.
You
are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human
relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and
anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against
our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.
My
point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind
of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and
all you have to do is reach for it. The only person you are fighting is
yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.
Part
of the problem with the word 'disabilities' is that it immediately suggests an
inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for
granted. But what of people who can't feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or
manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren't able to
form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in
their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and
bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the
real disabilities.
I slept and dreamt
that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold,
service was joy.
According to Vedanta,
there are only two symptoms of enlightenment,
just two indications that a transformation is taking
place within you toward a higher consciousness.
The first symptom is that you stop worrying.
Things don't bother you anymore.
You become light-hearted and full of joy.
The second symptom is that you encounter
more and more meaningful coincidences in your life,
more and more synchronicities.
And this accelerates to the point
where you actually experience the miraculous.
(quoted by Carol Lynn Pearson in Consider the
Butterfly).
Joy is the
infallible sign of the presence of God.
This is the day which the Lord has
made; we will rejoice and be glad in it
--Psalm 118:24
Positive and imperative thoughts
should be dropped into the balances of God
and weighed by spiritual Love, and
not to be found wanting,
before being put into action
<> Mary Baker
Eddy <>
with love --
all pictures, except the first two photos,
are by
Eva-Maria
