In the spirit of our theme for December, Opening to Joy, I share this poem with you from the Soul Matters Team.

Opening to Joy

It’s easy to get tricked,
taken for a ride,
convinced that joy
is a possession.

Something to be opened
just by us.
As if it’s a holiday special delivery,
waiting for us to unwrap it
and keep forever.

And who can blame us,
with pain being so prevalent.
Sadness seems to stay.
Why can’t joy?

But maybe it’s elusive
for a reason.
Maybe it’s slippery
in order to help us understand
that it was put here to fly.
Or better yet:
To be flung!
To be passed, not possessed.
To be spread
between you and me,
between the ones who received its gift
and the ones that have been looking for its treasure
for a very long time.

Maybe it’s a beautiful and elegant contagion,
over which we have more control than we think.
If only we share it.
If only we notice that joy is not ours to keep,
but ours to give.

Maybe joy opens us
as much as we open to it.

Maybe that’s the way light leaks into our world.

 

In Love and Hope,
Rev. Alice