Living
Joy
“Days
that lift us like a wave, when you feel you could live forever.”
Raymond
Blanc
Now and then, I have a
piece that just goes together so easily it seems to create itself—as
though it had been waiting in the fabrics for me to discover and free
it. This was one of those. “La Joie de Vivre,” the joy of life,
it's called, and it was a joy to make.
If you've been reading
this blog for a while, you know I'm a lover of wild-life in all its
forms (except for mosquitoes and fire ants, who seem to love me).
Dolphins hold a special place in my heart, as they do for most
humans. Once, when I was a very young woman and married to a military
man, we were stationed at Eglin AFB, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
The base was surrounded by bayous and bays, and dolphins swam there
regularly. I remember one lazy Sunday, when my husband and I and some
of our friends took a small motor boat out on a bayou to swim and
ski. I climbed across the side rail to jump out of the boat for a
swim, and half-way to the water, I saw a smiling dolphin face looking
up at me. I think I may have levitated back into that boat. The
dolphin, I'm convinced, was simply curious. He came to check us
out—no harm intended. He swam away backwards with a happy laugh. It
was a moment of pure joy for which I will always be grateful.
C. JoyBelle C. wrote:
“The very joyful thing about seeing ourselves and life from a
place of gratitude instead of entitlement—is that this way of
breathing allows us to be forgiving of difficult circumstances and of
those people who delivered such difficult circumstances to us.” It
offers us a chance at joy by lifting the burden of resentment we may
be harboring. My marriage to that military man ended just a few years
later, but I have many happy memories of our time together. Moments
of joy and gratitude make a world of difference in how we perceive
our lives—we must hold them close when they happen, and create them
when we can.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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