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An attitude of contemplation helps us to see the quiet beauty that is all around us in the world, in the faces of the people in our lives or the way a cat stretches, as well as in the mundane tasks that take up so much of our time. We can begin to cultivate the "listening heart." This contemplative way of seeing, hearing, and feeling brings richness and depth of meaning to our lives. It allows us to know what is real and essential. It helps us move toward freedom and wholeness as we see more clearly into the truth of the moment.

~ from SEEDS OF AWAKENING by Molly Vass-Lehman

July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

Linda DeGraf

Dear Friends ~ In our quiet little forested niche amid a uniformly gray sky, it has been raining for enough days to wonder how Noah might have felt waiting for dry land. So much of what happens in the world bespeaks sorrow and loss- parents and children wrenched apart, floods and volcano eruptions, fathers and sons taking their own lives in despair. Yet into this mire, Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama have dared to offer THE BOOK OF JOY. This is no "self-help 10 steps to happiness" manual. Between South African apartheid and Tibetan exile, these two have honed their wisdom in a crucible of painful reality. It is wisdom well worth pondering, rooted in deep compassion and liberally sprinkled with humility and friendship. If we are made for joy, how do we live it?

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We can cope with whatever life has to throw at us

Wendy Beckett | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

Joy establishes us so securely in itself, and in the remembrance of its presence, that we can cope with whatever life has to throw at us.

~ from MEDITATIONS ON JOY by Wendy Beckett

Joy is a piercing desire

Deborah Smith Douglas | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

Joy is a piercing desire, a mystical longing both painful and sweet: a kind of homesick-ness for a home we scarcely remember.

~ Deborah Smith Douglas, in Weavings, XV:4

A joyful awareness

Irma Lalecki | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

The true source of joy is love—love of God, love of beauty, love of wisdom, love of another human being, it does not matter which. It is all one love: a joyful awareness of dissolving boundaries of our ordinary narrow self, of being one with reality beyond, of being made whole.

~ from The Door to Joy by Irma Lalecki in "Heron Dance"

The most visible joy

Rainer Maria Rilke | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

The most visible joy
can only reveal itself to us
when we've transformed it, within.

~ Rilke

The effort must be light-hearted

Diane Mariechild | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

The holy life is concerned with the journey, not the goal..In truth it is the spiritual journey that brings great joy because it is a path of the heart . Discipline is needed; we need to put forth effort. The effort must be light-hearted. We can't be attached to our mistakes or any particular way of doing or being...We bring a sense of equanimity to all life's challenges; we learn to laugh at ourselves, to not take ourselves so seriously, and to get back up when we stumble. This brings us joy. Joy makes life whole and holy.

~ from OPEN MIND by Diane Mariechild

Joy is my name

William Blake | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

"I have no name:
I am but two days old."
What shall I call thee?
"I happy am,
Joy is my name."
Sweet joy befall thee!

~ Wm Blake

The deep power of joy

William Wordsworth | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony and by the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.

~ William Wordsworth

This is the true joy of life

George Bernard Shaw | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

This is the true joy of life: being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one...I am of the opinion that my life belongs to others, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for them whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live...Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

~ George Bernard Shaw

To perceive God's joy

Belden Lane | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

Why is it always easier to anticipate God's wrath than to perceive God's joy? Ever expecting to be shot, we're invariably dumbfounded by a grace we can't conceive...God plays rough before breaking into laughter.

~ Belden Lane

Authentic joy

Pema Chodron | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

Authentic joy is not a euphoric state or a feeling of being high. Rather, it is a state of appreciation that allows us to participate fully in our lives.

~ Pema Chodron

We are meant to live in joy

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

"We are meant to live in joy," the Archbishop explained. "This does not mean that life will be easy or painless. It means that we can turn our faces to the wind and accept that this is the storm we must pass through. We cannot succeed by denying what exists. The acceptance of reality is the only place from which change can begin."

~ from THE BOOK OF JOY, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams

Transformed into the heart of joy

Maggie Rose | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

Solitude is the human condition, the universal vocation to be human. It is the willingness, with Love indwelling, to go to the heart of pain to find new life and share it with the world even though you may be separated from it physically. From this commitment to be focused through the narrow gate of solitude, self-emptying love is outpoured, and the heart of the community, the heart of pain, is transformed into the heart of joy.

~ Maggie Rose

The source of joy

Brother Roger | July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

In life's trials, little by little we realize that the source of joy does not lie in extraordinary abilities or great expertise, but rather in the humble giving of ourselves in order to understand others with kind-heartedness. Joy is always there lying in waiting for us when simplicity is united to kind-heartedness in our daily lives.

~ Brother Roger of Taizé