Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let's not be afraid to receive each day's surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy. It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity.
*Henri Nouwen
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Once, there was a young monk living in the desert, and he was very serious about practicing the teaching of Christ. He came across something he did not understand. He went to his spiritual Father. When the Father heard the question, he kept laughing. He stood up and walked away, still laughing. The young monk was disturbed by the Father's behavior. For the next three days, he could not eat, sleep, or think properly. At the end of three days, he went back to his spiritual Father and told him how disturbed he had felt. On hearing this, the Father replied, "Monk, do you know what your problem is? Your problem is that you are worse than a clown!" This shocked the monk, and he asked, "How can you say such a thing?! How can I be worse than a clown?" The Father replied, "A clown enjoys seeing people laugh. You? You feel disturbed because another person laughed. Tell me, are you not worse than a clown?" When the monk heard this, he began laughing and, in that laughter, he was freed to enjoy Life.
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In Grace and by Grace we discover a joy that leads us to take life less seriously but more reverently. We may become less religious, but we become more awed by Life, by the Mystery moving all around and within every life form. We share more wholly in the bliss of the Divine. Grace dances, and we dance in and with Grace. We find, also, the wonder of joy and sadness being part of the same movement. Life becomes ecstatic dance, not merely a happy dance, but a joyful dance. To the non-dancers, we become wonderfully odd. How blessed are the wonderfully odd. And by emanating this Joy, you invite others to join the blissful dance, and some will join with you, and us. Thereby, the world will be a little more of a joyful place for everyone.
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*Lotus of the Heart is a Work of Arem Nahariim-Samadhi ~ a Hospice Chaplain, interspiritual author, writer, poet, and bicyclist. He is someone in love with Life and inviting others to that same ecstasy of Love ~ and, by the way, herein is nothing he claims as his own.
