  Spiritual
This week: Choose Joy Edited by: Sophy  
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Hi, I'm Sophy ~ your editor for this edition of the Spiritual Newsletter.
The Rev. Scotty McLennan, author of the book Finding Your Religion, compares humanity's innate need for spiritual searching to climbing a mountain. In his view, we are all endeavoring to climb the same figurative mountain in our search for the divine, we just may take different ways to get there. In other words, there is one "God," but many paths. I honor whatever path or paths you have chosen to climb that mountain in your quest for the Sacred.  |
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Choose Joy
From The Prophet – by Khalil Gibran
Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board,
remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the reassure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver,
needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.
Rumi
Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.
Mark Nepo
I’ve learned that if we can stay true to experience and to each other, and face the spirit that experience and love carry, we will eventually be reduced to joy. Like cliffs worn to their beauty by the pounding of the sea, if we can hold each other up, all that will be left will be wonder and joy.
Probably one of the most important things I have realized recently is that joy – seeking it, experiencing it – is a choice. It is active, not passive. Joy is not necessarily achieved as naturally for everyone, though for some it certainly does seem to be easier to acquire. But we all have highs and lows in our lives; we all have moments of great despair and utter joy. In fact, we often talk about joy in the same breath with its companions – joy and sorrow, happiness and sadness, smiles and tears, the ecstasy and the agony. The experience of one intensifies our awareness of the other. Sorrow, for example, may be the price we pay for joy; when we have known great happiness in a relationship, we feel its loss more deeply. Or think of those times when you laugh so hard you cry. There is a fine line between the tears of laughter and tears of sorrow, as Gibran’s words suggest.
In the midst of those moments, we have a choice to make about whether and how they will define us. It may not be easy – in fact, it may suck – life is hard, that is a fact. But life doesn’t just happen to us – we have a choice about how we respond to it, the good and the bad. As I turn 55 in a few months, all I can say is that I wish I had figured that out earlier, because I would have made some different choices. But at least I am making them now.
For instance – I was so excited about getting new knees before my surgery – though I knew had a long road of pain and therapy ahead of me, I was looking forward to spring and summer and being able to go on walks with Mr. Sophy and Daisy, shop for new clothes, and just be a somewhat normal, mobile person again. Right after surgery was tough, and there were times I regretted my decision to have surgery, but I gutted it out and improved week by week. Then we discovered that my new knees, which enabled me to walk taller and straighter, also exacerbated an ankle problem I didn’t know I had. Either the pain in my knees took attention away from the pain in my ankle, or walking with the particular limp that became the norm for so many years helped mitigate the ankle problem – or perhaps a bit of both. Whatever the case, I was now faced with yet another impediment to my walks on the trail and trips to the mall.
I was pretty upset about it, especially when I was told that an ankle brace would become a regular part of my daily life. Forever. Not just for a few days or weeks – the brace will not fix the problem, but will help it not get worse. I have to admit, I felt pretty sorry for myself, not so much because of the brace itself so much as because wearing the brace means I have to wear socks and shoes. And I HATE wearing socks and shoes. I am a barefoot kind of gal! Summer is coming and I have to wear shoes AND socks? Poor me, woe is me!
But then, partly because neither Mr. Sophy nor my physical therapist showed me any sort of sympathy about it, and in fact, both said, “How lucky you are that something can help you without requiring more surgery!” – they are both clearly glass-half-full kind of people – anyway, I dried my tears and made a choice not to continue down pity lane. After all, I have new, custom made, titanium, miraculous knees, for gosh sakes. I have a medical plan that paid for most of my expenses, a husband and friends who love and support me, and a physical therapist who cares for me and works me hard that my knees are straighter and bend at right angles and beyond for the first time in so long I can’t remember. And now I also have a brace that helps keep me walking taller and straighter than I have in years. I even exercised on an elliptical machine for the first time ever this past week. And the best part is, with the help of the nice woman at a local shoe store, we even figured out a way for me to wear flip-flops with the brace Now all I have to do is get someone to bedazzle it for me with sparkling rainbow rhinestones and I am good to go.
Do I wish I didn’t have to wear the brace? Yes. Do I have to wear the brace? Yes. So now it’s up to me to choose – make the best of the situation, which is not at all what I expected or wanted, and find the joy where I can, or feel sorry for myself. I choose option A – and notice the use of the active verb there. Not “I chose Option A” but “I choose Option A.” Every day, as I struggle to put a sock on before lacing up the brace, I make that choice. It is an ongoing, active, living, breathing, conscious choice. And for me, that paves the way joy.
Joy doesn’t come and smack me in the head – it is not something owed to me, that I deserve. It is an active verb, an active choice, a prayer and a blessing. Have you chosen joy? Are there ways in which joy might be an option for you that you may not have considered before? What joy do you bring to the table? |
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Here is a response to my last newsletter "Spiritual Newsletter (April 29, 2015)" about "Heroes:"
From monty31802
Your News Letter about Phil learning from Arnold that he would like to be that way and in fact has became the same was news to read. I am sure we all have heroes that we have made changes due to what we saw in their ways. A fine News Letter.
Thanks so much, and yes, I am sure we all have chosen heroes in a similar way - I know that I have!
     
From Quick-Quill 
This is a dream of mine: To some day be a respected author whose books are on every shelf. I want to be different than most successful authors. I want to hear from people. I want them to ask me how I did it. I want to be able to encourage those who are willing to put in the effort. Writing isn't easy. Its hard work to craft a story people want to read. When I hear the words, "I couldn't put it down," Im estatic. I know the feeling of reading into the night because the story hooked me. That is the type of books I want to write and I want to read.
Being able to help someone overcome a lack of self confidence and write their first story or get it published would be a thrill. I'm still learning.
Great dream - good luck!
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming! Until next time! Sophy |
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Spiritual: May 27, 2015 Issue [#7009]
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