February 17, 2015

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity's sunrise.

            -- William Blake

This luminous quote from Blake’s deep and delicious verse is one that I didn’t have to google.  It made a home in my memory in that awakening moment so long ago when I first read those words. 

Like my bio blatantly states, “I believe in joy.”  The Dalai Lama says that his religion is kindness.  Same here.  But I also believe deeply in joy.

We are here in Earth school to experience many things, but I will go on record as stating that joy is at the top of the heap. 

It’s an elusive thing, joy.  We cannot go after it, much less, as Blake tells us, try to hang on to it. It’s like trying to catch a butterfly. You catch it . . . you spoil it.

How then, does one experience this bubbling emotion?  How do we get more juicy joy into our lives?

Sometimes it helps to look at the opposite of a thing, or in this case the lack of it, to see more clearly.  How does joyless feel? 

I see someone’s rounded shoulders, hanging head, plodding feet, shrouded in self-imposed gloom, carrying the weight of world.  The situation is grave and she is pulled down by this gravity.

I want to take this trodden soul and shake her upside-down, whirl her around, help her dance on her toes, arms in the air, hair flying, music playing, until she is so light hearted that she can fly like an angel – soaring on joy!

Aha!  Sounds to me like we must be in our body to experience this kind of joy. Completely out of that head that tells us, and keeps us in, the gloom and doom story.

And in order for this to happen we must be in the present moment.  No matter what the issue of growth and self-awareness that we work on, it always boils down to this. 

If I am not living in this moment, how can I truly experience joy?  I can be in the past trying to remember how it felt, or I can project into the future hoping to get the feeling again, but only in this very precious moment can I get the joy. 

William Blake expresses this as ‘kiss the joy as it flies’.  Grab every moment, live it, love it and let it go. 

Laugh, dance, sing, do cartwheels, play music, run barefoot, roll down hills, grab the world by its horns and you will be so light that you’ll fly over the rainbow. 

Meanwhile, back in Winterland where I live, it’s February.  Natives are feeling grumpy and ridden with complaints about weather, roads, weather, colds, flu, and all manner of aches and pains.   Joy is a not even a sometime thing in this world of woes. 

There’s a name for it: February blaas.

So juice it up.  Insert some red into the blues.  Warm wooly red throws and cushions to wrap your somber self.  Red pepper, red lentil, and tomato soups to warm and nourish the body.

If the darkness is getting you down, string strings of fairy lights around the windows and doorframes.  Light candles and oil lamps to get some fire going. 

Have a potluck/movie night with close friends and make it a beach party or luau.

Dress warmly and get outside on a sunny day, somewhere in nature, and really BE where you are, inhaling crisp air, noticing the blue of the sky and the snow icing the trees.

Love your self enough to make an effort to bring your self some joy, even in February, because, my dear friends, this nurtures not just you, but all those close to you and far from you.  This nourishes the planet.  Everything is connected.

To feel the radiance of joy through your whole being, be in the moment, let go of attachments – to the joy or anything else, know that you are connected to everything, love yourself unconditionally. And you will catch the joy as it flies . . . and then radiate it to everyone else.