But, life has difficulty and sorrow.
So true joy is the capacity to find richness and meaning in the trenches, to find extra to offer another when your own coffers are low, to inspire in the midst of your own dark places and to live convicted in your determination to ensure that we all have equal access to the greatest resource that exists: fulfillment.
Basic needs, yes always.
But after that, conditions are irrelevant. Your past, you mean mamma, your daddy that left you, your unplanned pregnancy, your bad diagnosis, your penchant for wine or heroin, your broke ass, your endless stream of shitty affairs.
That’s noise.
Basic necessities: food and shelter
Then the work of joy.
Start with what do I, little ole me, have to contribute? And not in an influencer way. Not as a performance. But as a humane human.
One thing a day. An orange, a helping hand, $50 to the SPCA. Broke? Okay $5. Sing in the choir. Ok, no time? Then help with pollution and stop complaining. Don’t write another snarky or intended-to-incite reactivity post. Zip your lip for the sake of all. Or if you have something important to say, do it dammit! Get a billboard. Make t-shirts. Just get on the wave. Ride the wave.
Don’t look at your issues, not one more minute.
The sad-eyed people who talk to you like you’ve been in a car wreck and can heal you? Close the book, turn off YouTube, turn off the documentary.
Get your ass up and go and help someone. Do it for a month. Then do it for another month.
This is called strength training and it’s the only way to develop the muscle of resilience.
If you are a heart-full person, it’s not your fault that the world can be heart-less; but it is your duty to develop the capacity to function and carry out your purpose in this world that is difficult for all of us. No excuses. There is no get-out-of-your-calling-for-free card. Get a book on boundaries. Learn the language of the patriarchy and what moves it so you can debate well. And as Angela Davis says you gotta get up and do it every single day. Think of it as adding leafy greens to your psychic diet.
And cut the shit from that diet.
No Chicken Little, the sky isn’t falling, the world isn’t ending. Civilizations rise and fall. Climate changes wiped out dinosaurs. Wars happen. You’ll end up useless and curled in a ball in your closet now part of the problem if you let this stuff get to you. The media loves to freak you out and create enemies in the schoolyard. It makes for good ratings. Don’t let them pimp you out like that. You’re better than doing their stupid made up bidding that then makes it all real.
Resilience is knowing that protecting your value is synonymous with your ability to bounce back to joy, and that is determined by what you allow into your mind and what you put out from your heart.