Advent: Week 3 - JOY

To date we have lit two Advent Candles, HOPE and PEACE. Today we light the third candle of Advent, JOY.

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”

Luke 2:10

Sharing from a very personal place I want to show you an insight that I have learned only in the last month. Over the last few months I began to realize that although I have come through a very difficult period in my life and ‘survived’ it, I was still missing something. That something is JOY. Sometimes when we experience challenging life transitions and are subject to the process of the stages of grief it takes longer than we would wish. Although I feel I have traversed those stages in my life, which Elisabeth Kübler-Ross teaches as being, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression & Acceptance, I felt as though I was missing something at the end,  joy. Oddly, it was if I somehow expected it to be like some sort of prize for winning the race like a medal of honour or trophy.

So in my quiet times I began to ask [God, Universe, Spirit, Creator, Higher Power], Why is it I feel as though I’m missing the prize? Where is my JOY? I am very fortunate in these days to have my questions answered fairly quickly. I believe that this is because the future I’m being prepared for is coming very quickly now. In fact I believe that that future is happening right now. I’ll explain.

Over the last three years I have been blessed by the books and daily readings written by Melody Beattie. I have written about her blessings in my blogs previously. It was only a few days after my inquiry that I was taken through a series of readings by her that helped me to learn more about JOY. I began to realize that the life I had been living for many years had actually robbed me of my joy because I was so busy trying to hold everything together. I was busy trying to fix someone. I was busy pretending I was living a life of joy. So much so that I’d forgotten what joy really was all about. My life had become based in the future and fear-based.

I realized that JOY is not a prize. JOY is not and end goal. JOY is about the now. Yes, that’s right – now! Over the years I had gotten so used to living in a place of fear that I wasn’t able to experience the joys that surround us every moment of every day. The joy of family. The joy of a wonderful companion, my Dachshund, Gracie. The joy of friends. The joy of eating chocolate. The joy of sitting by the ocean and writing. The joy of watching a good show on the TV. The joy of solitude. The joy of health and abundance.

I realized that these momentary acknowledgements of joy that surrounded me all added up. The sum of which, if I took notice, would lead me to the place of experiencing joy constantly and consistently.

I realized that it wasn’t really the past few years of my life that had caused this joyless state. I realized that somewhere between the innocence of childhood and adulthood, perhaps even the teen years, stress, life directions, life ‘purpose’, etc… had caused me to lose touch with the momentary joys that I experienced.

This morning I sat down for my quiet time and did my usual reading. It was a time of joy. I also had the first cup of coffee in several days because of the flu. What a joy! The taste of that hot, creamy, delicious quality coffee swirling around my mouth was a real pleasure (i.e. joy). The texture and taste of the butter on my homemade bran muffin was almost more than I could imagine. It was a joy! Reading my morning reading, journaling, looking out at the snow falling, the solitude before the house began to wake…what joy!

Do not be AFRAID. For I bring you…JOY!!!!

Notice FEAR and JOY cannot reside together. FEAR is caused by living in the FUTURE. On the other hand, JOY  is experienced in the present.

Advent: Week 3 - JOY