Today we're talking about joy is a gift.
Joy arrives unexpectedly when you are doing something else and not paying attention.
A moment of joy can be as simple as watching birds fly or feeling the warmth of the sun or taking a shower or holding someone's hand.
Don't think these small gifts,
These small joy moments are unimportant.
They will sustain you over a lifetime and save you when you are in despair.
It is no small thing to feel absolute connection to the universe.
Joy is this moment of pure connection,
The universe.
Now I don't know about you but I am a person who has a lot of emotion,
A lot of emotional ups and downs.
And I have always been in wonder at these times when I have been feeling low or I have been feeling sad and I will step outside and notice the sky or I will get into the shower and let the water run off me and run over me and suddenly in a moment where nothing is really happening I will notice something in the universe,
In the field and it will be this moment of exquisite delight,
The way a bird flies or the way a branch waves or just the way the light comes in when you are driving or the wonders of a shower,
You know,
Just this small,
Small thing and it will shift your mood entirely.
It's like a blast from the universe of high vibration.
It's like a blast of pure wonderment,
Amazement,
Like the beauty of this life.
And here's the important part of this teaching.
These moments of joy will sustain you over a lifetime,
These many,
Many,
Many moments of joy that are always there every single day and save you when you are in despair.
There is nothing like being in despair and having the universe have a leaf drop right onto your hand or have you see the sky as it's just opening up into sunlight or all the things that can happen,
This moment that disrupts your sadness or your melancholy,
Your depression and shows you another vibrational state,
The state of joy.
I believe that really the more we pay attention,
And so the more we pay attention means the less we are distracted.
So that the less we are distracted by our to-do list,
By our busyness,
By our social media,
By all the things that our brain is telling us to pay attention to,
When we drop out of that mode and instead inhabit this very soft,
Open,
Expanded state like a child waiting for magic.
We're just sitting or walking or we're just aware that magic is there and we are thrilled because we're going to see it.
And this is when joy shows up,
When we're not really doing anything important,
Not really doing anything distracted,
We're just sort of hanging out in connection with the universe knowing that the magic is there and knowing that we're going to receive this magic as a gift.
This is what it is meant by direct connection with the universe,
Direct connection with the outer world,
Direct connection with the environment around us.
Moments of being in the mystery,
Knowing that the mystery is magic and being so thrilled to being there waiting for that moment of joy to arrive.
