Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
-Kahlil Gibran
…the Spirit is joy…
-The Science of Mind, page 447
A Path Of Joy
I set a radiant new goal, to expand my capacity to live in joy. As usual, mistaken beliefs contradicting my goal came up to be replaced. Was it wrong not to focus on more serious, important goals? I burst out, "I want to choose joy and feel good about it!"
A paradox was revealed. Is it really possible to choose joy and feel bad about it? It sounds funny to say it, but people do, every day.
I encountered new beliefs supporting my goal of joy. Affirmation, prayer and practice reinforced them. Research lent credence to a more liberated, lighthearted lifestyle choice. Ernest Holmes said, "What joy to know that all is well…"
Mystic Julian of Norwich, wrote, "The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything." Consciously practicing the Presence, I feel life become more spacious. I walk among the flowering trees of spring, delighting in the petal showers created by the warm breezes. A robin and I watch bright clouds lazily navigating an azure summer sky. Leaves, newly crisped by cooler winds, rustle under my feet in autumn. A winter storm howls outside my window, as I snuggle, grateful to be warm. Joy expands.
Just five minutes with the wind is a vacation. Fresh awareness discovers beauty, grace, and yes, God, in all the world to love. Joy is ever present, in the details of life, the moment we look, listen or feel for it.
Right now, I relax into the knowing that all is well. I choose joy and feel good about it. I look at life with appreciation for the blessed details of today. I bask in the wonder of this extraordinarily beautiful world. I am free to play with the wind.
Connee Chandler, RScP
Published in Science of Mind Magazine, August 23, 2000, page 71