31. Leaping For Joy

I wonder what causes your heart to leap for joy?

In my last blog on the 'First Signs of Spring', I mentioned my joy at seeing the first signs of life in our garden. I also enjoy watching the new lambs race and frolic together. How they manage to find their way back to the right mother is another of nature's mysteries! My blog also left me wondering about the other things in life that brought me joy.

However, Joy is not the same as happiness. The UK Psychologist Rachel Fearnley, suggests joy flows out of making peace with who we are, why we are, and how we are. While happiness usually arises from the things we have or receive, or places we visit, on thoughts that come to mind, or on particular events during our day. Fearnley also suggests 'Joy' has the unique ability to open our hearts. And for this reason alone joy is a familiar theme in our Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, as found for example, in the following reflection I wrote on Psalm 4:

You, O God, are my refuge and my strength,
my helper in time of trouble.
I have no need to fear,
even when all I hold dear
is taken from me,
and the foundations of my life are shaken,
you are there.

You are within me.
In my depths I find your river of joy;
its water refreshes my soul.
You are my holy place.
When I rest in you,
I am secure.

Each morning, when I wake,
your strong arms cradle me
for you are my past and future;
in you, I am eternally present.

I will be still
and know that you are God.
You are exalted in all the earth!

This same joy-filled and awe-inspiring wonder and union with creation is found in the poetry of the Franciscan mystic, Blessed Angela of Foligno,

Everywhere she looked
she saw the created universe resplendent, with God's presence
and herself one with it...
In a vision, she could see nothing except the divine power
so that marvelling she cried aloud:
'This whole world is pregnant with God...
the world is so charged with the grandeur of God'.
Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation...
but the power of God fills it all to overflowing.¹

Have you thought of starting a journal to list the things each day that brought you joy?
It is a simple way to help increase mindfulness and cultivate gratitude for the awe-inspiring world we live in.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

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1.Paul Lachance OFM, The Spiritual Journey of the Blessed Angela of Foligno, 1984