"I don't have to earn my life anymore. It was given to me to cherish as I would a precious gift from someone who loves me and whom I love."---Jim Curtan
This same Jim Curtan also, referring to what he realized at a retreat, said:
"God said my job was joy. But joy is not just about being happy. Joy is a rigorous spiritual practice of saying yes to life on life's terms."
Drop dead profound.
And in the spirit of joy, and to counterbalance the lately more sad posts at the happyluau, here are some joy-filled pictures I've been saving to share with you. They didn't seem to go with any of my previous posts this week, but they will fit with this one!
~The two photos above are from Cute Overload, the happy hamster and the happy dog.
~This photo of the happy nuns is from this blog.
9 comments:
That first quote needs to be tattooed on every person's arm or wrist! If that *one lesson* would be internalized, the culture here would be healed.
It gets very hard sometimes to try to convince people who have grown up in such a destructive culture that we are not here to suffer. We're not here to be wounded. We are here to enjoy each other and the planet.
~*
Just came back to recommend something. If you get a chance and you have Netflix, be sure to rent "The Flowering of Human Consciousness". Right now, I get the impression that you would really like it and would get a lot from it.
:)
Chani,
If I ever get a tattoo, that's what I would get. It seriously is going to be my mantra, and I'll probably have to repeat-repeat-repeat it, but that's okay!
I don't have Netflix, but I looked in my library, and I DO have it, can you believe it, miracle of miracles---bought it in cassette form a while back. Now must be the time for me to listen to it. And that's what I'm going to do.
Thanks for the recommend!
love, O
oh, i so needed a smile and these pictures did it for me! thanks, olivia. xoxo
don't want you to be sad...
would you like a little something from me? something handmade and heartfelt?
I'm so glad, Leah! They really do it for me, too, and I'm glad we could share it. Love, O
Caremen,
Just reading your lovely comments and seeing you here on my blog is enough, Carmen :) Thank you so much, and I love you, O
I would add one more little detail to Jim's thoughts on joy: while there can be rigor involved, one can experience joy with only a thoughtful decision to allow it. In other words, it's a sliding scale: to be in the joy space all of the time requires a good deal of rigor in one's practice in today's world. There is simply so much non-Joy offered us, that to stay joyful requires rigor.
On the other hand, with simple exercises as the tool, one can become adept at climbing to Joy with minimal effort...and climbing back after realizing one has fallen into the gritty world we all live in.
As always, the choice is one we each get to make!
Yes, very good, Rick, I do agree. Our culture offers us much non-Joy and much pseudo-Joy. But you are right in that if we do allow it, then it can truly be "easy" :)
Blessings and love,
O
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