Joy

 

Succumb to warmth in the heart; Where divine fire glows

John O’Donohue, from Axiom for Wildness

In the yoga sutras, Joy, when it comes, is always unexpected, a surprising gift from God.  We cannot manufacture our own Joy which unlike happiness is unbounded to outer circumstances.   Joy, like sunlight filtering through the tree canopy, becomes known to us in the darkness. And comes to us through our soft tender hearts, the same door as grief and sorrow.

Joy walks hand in hand with sorrow.  I found myself filled with Joy on a recent walk in the forest, the colors in the field turning, the pond dark and still.  In the next moment I am weeping for the sweetness of this moment that will surely pass, for all that I love that is passing. I think of my mother who I call everyday just to hear her voice, my groundnote, and wonder what I will do when she is gone and I can no longer hear her voice.  And I am filled with the Joy of the love that she has given to me and the love I feel for her now so clear and simple.  I miss my father on these walks in New Hampshire the one place where he was at ease and peace and feel him near me still.

When we become tender through grief and sorrow, the flow of Joy can touch us as we take in the sound of the rain on a dark fall evening, the friend reaching out for help, the long day of hiking in the mountains, the last swim of the season in a dark Autumn lake.