I have been thinking about joy in the midst of trial.
We are allowed to feel it.
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The roof leaks again.
The path is washed out by rain.
Still, berries ripen.
Still, a neighbor brings bread.
Still, a dog rolls in wet grass.
When hardship presses, joy feels off limits. How can you laugh now?
Joy does not erase sorrow. It sits beside it. Joy insists on being present, even so.
I have known fraught mornings when dread crept into the corners of my room. And then the birdsong came into my notice. The moment broke open. Joy entered.
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I once thought I had to choose: joy or sorrow. But the two are not enemies. They walk together.
To feel joy in trial is not to betray suffering. It is to honor life. To say: the rains have not swept me away.
Joy will not wait until the storm is over.
It arrives in the storm.
Will I let it in?
– from the mountain
Consider:
How can I let myself feel joy?
Reading:
“Joy is not in things; it is in us.”
— Richard Wagner
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“The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.”
— Julian of Norwich
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“These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
— John 15:11 (KJV)
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