I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive....
Joseph Campbell
Joy Collector
The great American mythologist, Joseph Campbell, in one of his interviews with Bill Moyers for the PBS series, "The Power of Myth," responded to one of Moyers' questions about human search for meaning this way:
"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of life...so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive."
The "rapture of being alive"...how many of us have been blessed enough to truly experience that? And how do you go about finding that? Surely we can't all spend our time sitting around "navel gazing" as some have mockingly described the meditative practices that blossomed in the late '60s and early '70s when Transcendental Meditation was all the rage and everyone was looking for a guru to teach them how to reach that state of pure detachment that is "ecstasy" or joy.
And in truth, we actually can't find it by "dropping out" or complete detachment as some envision it. We find it by the simple act of being truly present to our own lives, to the moments of our lives, being completely aware and mindful of those moments and most of all by being grateful for each one of them. Elizabeth Lesser (Broken Open, 2004) describes it as, "It is a willing engagement with the whole messy miracle of life." By that she means that one cannot find rapture or joy by avoiding the pain or the brokenness in our lives. Quite the opposite - one cannot find rapture without embracing that, looking into the face of our fears and anguish and being grateful for it. It is there, where we would least expect to find it, that we realize and appreciate the joy of living. One cannot appreciate light without darkness, become blissful about spring if there were no winter or dormant period, know love without its lack.
Here's the lesson in a metaphor - a poem I wrote some time ago called, "The Joy Collector."
The Joy Collector
Like a lepidopterist, I set out to capture joy in my net,
searching in all the usual, obvious places,
in the garden of blooms I’d planted to be
an enticement for the rare and fragile, wingéd creatures.
And once captured what would I do
with each uniquely beautiful specimen?
Wait for it to finish out its brief life in a jar filled
with leaves,
holes in the top and then, when it was living no more…
pin it to the corkboard, fix it under glass,
this now lifeless collection on display,
catalogued and labeled for me to show off my skills
as a butterfly hunter, satisfied, self-congratulatory?
But true joy can’t be caught like that,
remaining as elusive as a Palos Verdes Blue;
rather it catches you utterly by surprise,
comes from places and events you least expect
and seldom where you are looking for it!
Don’t chase after it…a butterfly hunter with a net -
and when you are very still, within and without,
perhaps even looking wonderingly another way
at something beautiful that catches your eye
and fills your awakening soul with delight,
she will settle gently on your shoulder,
flutter in your heart...and live.
© Lianne Schneider May 2011
Be grateful for the darkness, for the pain, even for the grief - when you can stand still in the midst of that, then you will find your rapture, your joy. In truth, one of my favorite poets, Khalil Gibran said it best nearly 1000 years ago:
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