HAVE you ever felt that the busyness of your life gets in the way of really living? Have you ever felt that even as you are hooked up, on line and tuned in with pagers, e-mail, voicemail, cell phones, satellite, cables and Faxes you are less connected with others? Have you ever felt that you live each day on automatic pilot plowing through your to-do lists, passing the same routes, seeing the same people?
Today, all too many of us feel these things and make it through days that fly by, but seem to drag on forever. Why? Because we have subscribed to definitions of success and happiness that have nothing to do with the nourishment that our souls truly need in order to joyfully thrive.
I’ve learned that it doesn’t have to be this way. Within our everyday lives we CAN experience joy on a daily basis. But not if we strive for joy through the acquisition of material things, fancy titles, or “free” time. Striving in these ways drives joy away as surely as squeezing a handful of water leaves us empty-handed.
If we want to find magical moments in our everyday lives, we have to make room for JOY! Joy requires emptiness – space and inattention. There is no room for joy when we are striving, collecting and hoarding things. There is no room for joy when we are full of anger, cynicism, or despair. There is no room for joy when we are worrying about the future or complaining about past events. As Susanna Tamaro writes in her gem of a book, Follow Your Heart, “Joy… has no object. It seizes you for no apparent reason, it’s like the sun, its burning is fuelled by its own heat.”
©Susan L. Colantuono. All Rights Reserved. Adapted from “Make Room for JOY!: Finding Magical Moments in Your Everyday Life.”
