The Bridge Back to Joy

It is like a stream, sorrow itself, that sometimes visits our abode... it weighs us down, and that's the honest reality.

Sure, sorrow may not be expansive as joy is (although it can help open us up). It may limit our range of experience.

And yes, even if there be heaviness, and even if our natural state of being is peace (with sadness not a state of balance), it is nevertheless so that when there is sadness, there is sadness.

Can we fight with what is?

To fight it, in the moment that it arises, is not necessary. It wont make it go away. Fighting it is actually counterproductive.

To realize the immense power of simply observing the sensation of sorrow, and letting it be, without putting labels and an "analysis of history" on it... such a practice helps us to reconnect with the bridge back to joy. The bridge will erect itself, surely, as if out of empty space, and it will show us the way to our natural state of joy.

Our duty then is to walk. To ACT toward the direction the bridge points.

And to be patient, with an open heart that is courageous to the possibility of stumbling again, yet not getting defeated by the stumbles.

Silence, meditative silence, certainly helps us to connect with the bridge. It helps us to see it.

Re-orienting toward joy is a process... with many stumbles along the way.