A New Light

If it’s important to remember our childhood darkness, trauma, or pain, then it’s even more important to remember our joy, because joy is our natural state, the original spirit and foundation of our very existence. If we cling to our pain, that pain becomes our identity. If our pain seems a greater, more powerful force than joy, then we need to work harder at remembering our own joy, however small and remote it may seem. If we can’t remember, if our lives are such that it seems the very essence of joy must have been squeezed out of them right from the beginning, then we must be willing to find joy in the present moment. For joy is all around. It’s in the faces of children, in birdsong, in the passing seasons, and in the sun and clouds and rain. Joy can also be found in the kind acts of others, and in their successes and achievements, simple or grand. Once they are recognized, and in feeling a sense of gratitude for these things, we begin quietly and steadily building our own record of joy. Then our pain can take its proper place, and be seen in a new light — the light of love, acceptance, instruction, and learning. To put it another way, if we feel we can’t rest until our darkness, trauma, and pain, apparent or hidden, have been carefully examined, then we certainly owe as much, or more, to our joy.

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