Joy. How many “Joy of” books have been printed? It’s become old hat, and there have been more than a few “Joy of” titled TV shows.

As silly as it sounds, it’s actually not silly. You experience joy to the degree that you are on the path of your heart. Not the path of some universal heart, some abstract deity. You experience joy when instead of doing work, you live work. When instead of doing chores, you allow yourself to participate in the chore experience.

Joy of Painting is one of the most successful shows because you could tell Ross was doing just that. Following his heart, and it was a joy certainly to watch him and listen to his voice. You can tell a person who knows joy. It can even be sort of overwhelming. The person who experiences joy is at home no matter what they are doing or where they are at.

And he keeps squirrels in his pocket. I wonder if the squirrel felt his joy. Oh, animals feel joy freely. If you want to see joy, watch a cat stretch after its nap, or go bonkers trying to catch a laser light dot. There is no plan. There is no artifice.

I watch the squirrel highway that is my backyard fence. They are feeling joy when they find that nut they have had hidden away. They do. There lives are mostly joy spiced with fear, but they quickly forget fear. They don’t have angst about finding nuts. They live to find nuts. What do you live for?

The fear makes life exciting, which is another form of joy. Yes. Fear isn’t evil. It’s just natural. It is a form of joy in that it is a part of the path of the heart. Even creatures like rabbits will sometimes seemingly ignore their instincts and court danger.

Extreme sports like bungee jumping. Not something I think I would try, but I can see why some are addicted to it. When it becomes an addiction, it ceases to be joy, because joy is dynamic. In the moment you say, “It must always be this way”, you lose your joy.

Adrenaline junkies aren’t feeling joy? Not if they are truly junkies. If they are willing to engage the rush, that is joy. When their lives lose meaning without the rush, that is not joy, and many men actually get hooked on exertion of their will in any of a variety of ways. This is why the male “ogre” image is such a stereotype. They lose joy and try to instead use force, which carried on for very long leads to various forms of tragedy. Joy can be seen as a synonym for comedy. Its opposite being tragedy.

The original meaning of the word comedy is not what it is today. Dantes Inferno is a part of a work called The Divine Comedy, and have you ever heard the term “comedy of errors”? Comedy is a life story told from the affirmative. A life of comedy is a path of embracing life. Comedy doesn’t mean you will shed no tears, but the tears will be bitter sweet rather than just bitter and toxic. When you embrace joy your tears will be more of joy than anything else, but you have to accept comedy.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~