"The very first time I tried to write about what about what gets in the way of gratitude and joy, I was sitting on the couch in my living room with my laptop next to me. I was tired and rather than writing, I was staring at the twinkle lights hanging over the entryway into my dining room. I am a huge fan of those little clear sparkly lights. I think they make the world look prettier, so I keep them in my house year round. As I sat there flipping through the stories and gazing at the twinkle lights, I took out a pen and wrote this down. Twinkle lights are the perfect metaphor for joy. Joy is not a constant. It comes to us in moments--often ordinary moments. Sometimes we miss out on the bursts of joy because we are too busy chasing down extraordinary moments. Others times we are so afraid of the dark that we do not dare let ourselves enjoy the light. A joyful life is not a floodlight of joy. That would eventually become unbearable. I believe a joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude, inspiration, and faith. Joy and gratitude can be very vulnerable and intense experiences. We are an anxious people and many of us have very little tolerance for vulnerability. Our anxiety and fear can manifest as scarcity. We sometimes think to ourselves:
Most of us have experienced being on the edge of joy only to be overcome by vulnerability and thrown into fear. Until we can tolerate vulnerability and transform it into gratitude, intense feelings of love will often bring up the fear of loss. Remember this: The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It is our fear of the dark that cast our joy into the shadows. A joyful life is not a floodlight of joy. That would eventually become unbearable. I believe a joyful life is made up of joyful moments... gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude, inspiration, and faith." Brene Brown - The Gifts of Imperfection |
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