Making Room for Joy

 

I am a week behind, but nevertheless I am delighted to report that this stretch of time has mostly been about living in JOY. Silly as it may sound, this does take practice. I find I am pretty conditioned to notice what's not quite right, what I wish were a little different...the classic story of a parent questioning, "What happened here?" with the one lower grade on a report card full of high grades.

I attended a conference for work last week, and I found myself engaged in all kinds of conversations: with people I love and don't get to see often, people new to me whose insights and perspectives moved me, and people who are experts in their fields - researchers, authors, speakers whom I would never usually have the chance to connect with. I felt unusually open, able to both listen deeply and ask questions that have been puzzling me. And because I felt open instead of withdrawn, these conversations were filled with joy. Because I wasn't afraid to show my ignorance and confusion (well, I was a little afraid, but I just noticed it and didn't let it stop me), I was better able to learn from these experts and drink in their words. When I let go of "looking smart", my passion was able to shine brighter through my genuine questions.

Also, though generally friendly, I don't usually open conversations with those around me. I'll greet my seat mate on an airplane, then stick my nose in a book. At the closing reception of this conference, however, I found myself standing in line at the bar surrounded by new faces. I struck up with the guy behind me, only to discover that he lives in Colorado, works at a school I'm familiar with, plays the banjo, and had just met a good friend of mine back in his home town. Five or six or seven connections later, we finally just smiled at each other with appreciation, gave genuine thanks, and went off happier.

Re-entering a normal work week, I find that the openness to joy has remained. I am in an intense period new learning (again), but instead of feeling overwhelmed, I am allowing myself to be smitten with it.

Meanwhile, Bruce is building a long-awaited new studio, and as a side benefit, we are organizing and moving other things. He kindly cleared out the "bunk house", a little room off of our outdoor patio that we were just using as a storage space, and we GOT BUSY - cleaning, painting, caulking, fixing, laying flooring, painting some more...and now we have our very own intimate yoga room, freshly dubbed "The Love Shack". Yup, making room for joy and inviting it in.