Joy isn’t just a radical act, joy is the revolution. I have been sitting with this idea for the past week. I first spoke it while driving my daughter to school. We joked that this would make a wonderful bumper sticker (don’t be surprised if I start to hand them out). She moved on to other thing but this continued to cook in me.
This first started to form in me in September when Tenneson and I were hosting our Wisdom Series on Joy. (The next Wisdom Series is focused on Forgiveness) I was sitting with the thought that in the moments when pure joy has shown up in my life bondage couldn’t even exist. In those moments I didn’t feel shackled by anything, not even my own thoughts (maybe that’s another blog post). In those moments I experienced freedom.
For me, joy is different than happiness. I can experience a deep sense of joy even in moments when I’m not particularly happy. Joy for me is almost like background music, playing a grounding, a steady beat that holds me as I move through life. Often times fear creeps in and changes the channel and snap, the bondage is back, whispering in my ear all it’s sweet nothings of, “You can’t!”, “You have to…!”, “What were you thinking?”, and “Who do you think you are?”. Bondage to people, to things, and even to ideas, take over and start to run the show again. But then somehow I find my way back to joy, usually after a lot of pain and grief. Then once again I can feel the background music of Joy, holding me steady.
So what if we each started to seek our own background stead beat of joy? What might that simple act shift in us individually and collectively? What might that change in our hearts and in our actions inwardly and outwardly?
"They will criticize from their cages enraged that you dare to live free."
-John Mark Green
It takes a lot of audacity and self esteem to claim joy in a world that is constantly feeding us an endless supply of fear. A world that preys on our trauma and supports our misbelief that spirit left us in our time of need and now even our own survival is all up to us.
I think this is the revolution that is calling us home, calling us back to ourselves, back to each other, and pushing us forward in consciousness. I am ready for this revolution. It's always easier when we go together. Please join me in the revolution of joy.
Quanita
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