“Joy is not in things; it is in us.”

– Richard Wagner

What is it that brings you joy?

Immediately, my mind goes to beautiful sunrises when I stand silently and anticipate the surprising beauty that I trust will arrive differently each day.  I think of sunsets that fill me with the same melancholy joy I feel when I watch the last embers of a fire glowing among the ashes of the blaze that now has run its course.  I think of rocking my babies in the depth of night and holding them close as they gaze into my eyes.  I think of watching them grow and discover who they are as they make their way toward choosing their own lives.  I think of warm times spent with family and friends.  I think of difficult times when we discover, in the midst of our sadness, the strength and depth that lies within us and brings us back to center again.  Living a life filled with joy lights the path ahead of us and gives us the gift of warm, peaceful memories of places we have been.  It fills our days with excited anticipation of what lies ahead and fills our dreams with lighthearted reflections of times past.  So many things bring joy to our days, and each of us has our own list of joys that is our own.

When I think of all the things that bring me joy, I realize that there are people who yawn at sunrises and sunsets — seen one, seen ‘em all.  There are people who grudgingly leave their beds when babies cry in the night and spend those times dreaming of the day when the little one will sleep until morning.  There are those who need their kids to perform to their own standards of success and those who cling too long to the children who must struggle to become adults.  So many different things bring joy to different people.  Why is it that the joy is not equally distributed to all by the same things?

Wagner, whose music has brought joy to generations of listeners, tells us why this is true.  Joy is not in the things around us.  Joy is inside each of us.  It is not the people or things who bring us joy.  We bring joy to the world we live in; and when we bestow the gift of our joy on the people we meet and the experiences we have, then we are able to see in tangible ways the joy that we carry within.  When others see us joyfully living each day, then we can touch their inner joy as well and call it from their depths and into the world.

It is our choice.  Whether we live our joy and fill the world with its splendor or choose to settle for external pleasures that are here for a moment and then disappear is for us to decide.  Look around you today and recognize the joy that others spill from their hearts into the things they do.  If they touch the joy the lives in you, then let your own joy send light to the world.  It really is the only way to truly live.