Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Remind me Again

In honor of one of the most...ahem...challenging weeks of my life, I feel like sharing some words from Kahlil Gibran:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Wise man.

It's funny that sorrow comes from so many different avenues--anxiety, grief, depression, guilt, fear, loss, loneliness, anger.

But, joy seems to be complete in itself.

Reasons for its being are unnecessary.

It needs no excuse to wiggle and shimmer,

dance and jiggle,

laugh silently while

beaming at you from the center of the room,

sometimes in the form of

a toddler...

or two.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

For a brief moment, you made me want to go out and have a couple of more...

for a BRIEF moment. If I ever do, I'll know to send them on to you.

That's why God made UPS, people: poke a couple of holes in a box and you can send ANYTHING worldwide!!!

(Sorry about your rough week. Hope it's better soon).

bella said...

oh, this makes my heart ache, with sadness and joy.

It is the feeling of being a mother.
Which is just to say it is an in your face, can't look away form of the feeling of life.

Shawn said...

Gosh, I hope you are doing OK ... fill me in. You know I worry about these things.

At least YOUR twins are making you smile and laugh. Pfft. MY twins are driving me crazy.

I recently really thought about joy. I took it for granted before I became a mom because I found joy in different ways. I have to admit that since the girls were born it's been really hard to feel that euphoric-type feeling of joy. I felt it once, recently, at my in-laws house and they were feeding us to the brim and giving us wine and it was just a great day. I think, in the end, I had felt secure and comfortable and taken care of. I've missed that ... sorry to hijack. : )

QUASAR9 said...

I know, I know
but wouldn't life be grand if we could surf permanently on the crest of the wave
You know, the Ups without the downs
The Laughter without the tears
The Joy without the sorrow
The Pleasure without the pain

QUASAR9 said...

The reality though is that often
we eat not for the pleasure of eating, but simply to avoid and keep away the hunger pangs.

But we could eat, not just because it is lunch time or dinner time, we could skip a meal - and eat because we are really drown to food

Whether the food be for the stomach, or love for the heart

But alas, temptation
how can one not take another bite at the cream cherry cake called life

Shannon said...

Gary- just so you know, if you send me anything in a box with breathing holes it will be returned to sender immediately :-P

Bella & Shawn- I know you guys get it and that makes it easier to not feel alone in this...relationship/job...lol

Welcome, Quasar9- I love the questions you pose. Unfortunately, if, as you say, we could only ride the crest I don't think we would view the "crest" as the top of a wave at all. It would simply be a lake without the ups and downs. And then, we would complain there was no movement in our lives.

Anonymous said...

Joy = complete = joy

(But Mercury retrograde does get in the way.)

Anonymous said...

beautiful post. hope things get better soon.

Shannon said...

A few kind words really do go a long way. Thank you, Shelli.

Anonymous said...

I'm reminding you again. May the week dawn fresh.

Shannon said...

Thanks, Karen. I like that word--fresh.

Shannon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.