Joy that needs a voice

If you hear beautiful music, the next words out of our mouths are "listen to this". Or when you see the sun glint on the fresh snow you probably say "look at that"! Or if you have a piece of chocolate, isn't it almost immediate we say "mmmmmm, taste this"?

These are all ways we express joy. The thing about Joy is that you want to share it with somebody else. Joy is not something we can keep bottled up inside. It is joy that brings us together in this season to share and give with others.

Joy is not the same thing as happiness. Happiness, as the word implies, happens. Joy transcends happiness and goes deeper. We can experience joy even in the midst of great hardship. Sometimes that joy helps sustain us, and can help sustain others. And then there are those times we are so "pregnant" with joy so wonderful that it just has to come out.

What gives you joy? I've found times when I'm so "pregnant" with joy that I have a perma-grin. Spending time with family overseas that I don't get to see often, skiing in the Alps, discussing deep questions with my Confirmation students, or making new connections with people all develop my joy. My soul magnifies my joy!

What brings you joy? Does the stock market bring you joy? Or the Tuesday evening show lineup? A young child learning the alphabet? Someone who is in a hospital who shares words that touch your soul? Joy is found in the common, ordinary things of our lives.

Joy is good for you, and good for the world. May you find joy in the everyday occurences of your life as we enter the New Year!

Peace,
The Gust

Posted in: on Thursday, December 31, 2009 at at 3:48 PM 2 comments  

Blurry Season

This time of year is normally filled with Christmas carols, white snow and massive amounts of anything edible. Snowman are out and in full swing making many winter wonderland appearances while Christmas presents are being bought and ripped open at a rapid pace. Smiles, alcohol and a good amount of laughs are passed around like a peace pipe on an Indian reservation. Overall it’s a good time to be around friends and family and catch up on some of the happenings of the past year, regardless of how far you have to travel to see some of them.


Christmas time or even winter time is a good time for the winter advocate or the closet skier to get out and enjoy. Hopefully you live in the northern hemisphere and get to enjoy the winter sensations but even if you don’t you can still feel that “Christmas feeling” in the air.

I just wanted to make a quick note and I hope everyone got to feel that special feeling and got to see everyone they wanted to see during their few mandatory days off this winter.
*raises glass quickly*

Cheers to Christmas time… can’t wait for your drinking buddy “New Years Eve” to come along next. Shit, what to drink? Guess I have to go shopping again, but this time to the liquor store, haha…

Ciao-

Posted in: , , , , , , , , on Monday, December 28, 2009 at at 9:11 AM 2 comments  

Radical amazement

As we enter the Advent and Christmas season, we have a renewed opportunity to experience rebirth. As we wait expectantly for the birth of a Jewish baby who would grow into an inspiring rabbi, I am reminded of the insistent message of a modern Jewish rabbi about radical amazement.

Abraham Heschel was a Jewish rabbi who was born in Warsaw, Poland and who escaped to England before the start of World War II. Heschel immigrated to the United States and taught at Jewish Theological Seminary. Heschel participated in Christian-Jewish dialogues and was very involved in the Civil Rights movement. Rabbi Heschel wrote that the greatest obstacle to knowledge is our attachment to conventional notions or mental clichés. We take things for granted. What Heschel said we desperately need is radical amazement, which means being maladjusted to conventional notions.

That's right: it can be good to be maladjusted to the way we always have seen things because then we can see the world and our lives afresh.

Radical amazement is what happens when you look at a gorgeous sunset and suddenly are amazed not just at the colors but also at the very ability to see! Radical amazement happens when you not only hear beautiful music but also are amazed at the ability to hear and enjoy at all! Radical amazement refers not so much to what we know as to that we know. Radical amazement gets at the root wonder of being here at all.

As civilization advances, Heschel said, our sense of wonder declines. We take things for granted. Yet Heschel insisted that a life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not so much a will to believe as a will to wonder. We have the chance for radical amazement again. Our home computers are more powerful than themainframes that NASA used to land a man on the moon yet we often complain about the slowness of a program. We sit on an airplane for a few hours to travel to the coast, yet we complain about a line for boarding. We turn on electric lights for granted without giving thanks for them. Who ever stares with wonder at a light bulb? Yet a candle flame can stir up in us a sense of wonder so weapproach our life with freshness.

At this time of year we tend to light candles. We slow down for a moment to wonder at the flame. I believe our Advent and Christmas seasons are a success even if we only experience a moment of radical amazement. Radical amazement can open our hearts to the wonder of that little Jewish baby asleep in a manger so many years ago.

Radical amazement can open our eyes to see the gift of the people who are now around us. Radical amazement can open our hands to reach out to others who, like us, share the same hopes, desires, and dreams of mankind.

During this Advent and Christmas season there are many opportunities for busyness and frantic activity. We may enjoy those activities and even thrive in them. There are also occasions where people keenly notice the emptiness of loved ones who have died or moved on. We may feel saddened by those losses. Through all the ups and downs, may everyone have a chance to help one another re-discover ourselves in this season of radical amazement!

Peace,
T-Blogger

Posted in: on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

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