Oh, my Fear! She can really pound on our doors with all kinds of concerns, worries, warnings. When Fear walks in, it can feel like Joy was sucked right out of the room. If we look in Fear’s pocket, we might see there is an envelope and that might just hold an invitation. The invitation is personal, different for everyone.
I wasn’t exactly feeling joyful this morning. Here is some of what I wrote, “Joy is not exactly what I feel in this moment. I feel rushed. Why did I take on this thirty-one day challenge? It isn’t like I don’t have enough to do! How will I fit this in today? There are other work and home projects to attend to!”
Do you remember a time when you were doing something playful, that really engaged you? Was it when you were a kid? teen? adult? Was it a one-time occurrence or did it happen over a period of time? Were you playing alone or perhaps you were in a group? Did it involve an object of some kind? Was your play purposeful or purposeless? How do you feel right now when you think about it?
Maybe we don’t need to define joy, may we just need to be on the lookout for it and find it wherever we happen to be? Can it be found waiting in a long line at the grocery store at the end of a difficult day when we’re tired?
What is IT that’s in the way? Can you remove IT? Leave IT alone? Take IT out with the trash? Is IT important?
