enabling joy ...

“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.” 

― Rumi

last night i was brainstorming with DS about how i could go back to being 3 years old and finding pure  joy and elation just from eating cotton candy. he suggested that i could find a random 3 year old and give them cotton candy, revel in their  joy, and then give them back to their parents for the fallout of all that sugar. i thought it was a funny idea, but not what i was looking for. i wanted to FEEL the  joy myself. and DS said, how about "the  joy of enabling  joy?" 

PAUSE

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river 

moving in you, a joy.” ― Rumi

i had to think about that. the  joy of enabling joy. 

what brings me  joy? what brings you  joy? for me, it can be singing, or holding a happy baby, or seeing the faces of my children when they master a new skill ... and it occurred to me that in fact most of the times i feel truly  joyful is when i have enabled  joy in someone else. 

“I don't think of all the misery, but of 

the beauty that still remains.” 

- Anne Frank

if anne frank could still find  joy, then who am i to focus on misery?

earlier this year, i had a truly  joyful experience. one that has few words to describe it. i was able to bring a pile of donations to a family in need. i often experience the let-down of giving to someone and having them behave as though they are entitled to what i have given them. but this time it was different. this loving and humble family welcomed us into their home, and experienced pure joy at receiving coats, and scarves, and art supplies. their gratitude was so sincere. their happiness was heart-warming. and their  joy brought me pure  joy. i couldn't stop smiling as their tried on their winter coats, and planned out who would get to keep the markers in which bedroom. 

“Joy is to fun what the deep sea is to a puddle. It’s a feeling inside that can hardly be contained.” 

― Terry Pratchett

i found  joy by enabling  joy.

“To get the full value of joy 

you must have someone to 

divide it with.” 

― Mark Twain

DS is onto something. he spoke to me about his work, and how he finds job satisfaction by the unconscious smiles of the people he works with. it reminded me of my own work and the  joy i find through working with others. 

joy: let it fill you. let it wash not over you, but through you. 

i leave you with this thought ...

“Sometimes your joy is the 

source of your smile, but 

sometimes your smile can be 

the source of your joy.” 

― Thích Nhất Hạnh

xoxo

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