Joy

I have a photo on my desk by my computer, a friend made it for me. It is a collage of things that reminded her of me. There is a lotus blossom(of course), ohm sign, lavender flowers, and musical references, and a large JOY. It holds a photograph of she and I and another good friend. I look at this photo every time I sit at my desk and I always smile. There are the three of us smiling, with this huge JOY right by our faces.

The past couple of days I have centered my yoga classes around joy. It is so easy to be distracted by life, that we forget to have joy. I love the hand mudra for joy and I taught that to my classes this week too. Just a way to remind ourselves to look for the joy in our lives.

Joy is such a simple thing. It can be cold creamy ice cream cone on a hot summer day or a mug of steaming hot chocolate on a cold wintry day. It can be the smile of some one you love as they come into the room, or a hug from a friend when they see you. Joy happens in moments, just fleeting seconds , those ah ha moments when it is all good.

No matter how bad it gets, no matter how beaten and sad you feel, if you give yourself the chance you can find joy........how you may ask? Think of someone, of some place or some thing

that has given you joy. That sensation is so strong, so ingrained in our hearts that once we are reminded , you feel joy!

The wonderful thing about joy, it goes hand in hand with gratitude. If some thing, some one gives you joy, you just have to be grateful, and once you are grateful, there is joy. It becomes

a circle.

I read a story recently about a young girl who lived in a war torn country. Food was scarce, fear was every where, but there was a cherry tree growing near her. She watched as spring brought

blossoms to the tree, and then as green fruit appeared, and then finally one day, Ripe Cherries!!!! She said that she and her friends and families ate themselves silly, it had been so long since they had had fresh fruit. Those cherries brought joy into her life, and I can promise you, for the rest of her life, whenever she sees or thinks about cherries, she will experience that moment of joy.

It is so easy to dwell on the bad, and even easier sometimes to forget the good. If we could all just once a day, find joy. Take a few seconds to think about something/someone who give us joy. It's there just waiting for us to rediscover it...........find joy.