Peace Pilgrim once said, "Who could know God and not be joyous?" When we overcome the illusion of our separation from the divine we find ourselves in joyous contact with the Ultimate Reality from which we spring. This connection frees us from any misunderstanding we might have about ourselves and the nature of life. It allows us to experience joy.
I first discovered a sense of the divine during my early teenage
years when I was with my horse Duchess. I reveled in the beauty of the
natural world, admiring the energy of the trees, the soil, and the air
surrounding us. We can experience this feeling of reverence whenever we
are in contact with nature.
For me
the divine is free from association with religion. It is the
ultimate source of the universe and of consciousness. I like to think
of the ultimate mystery as God and that God is the mystery of pure
love. It is the totality of everything. The illusion of our
separation from the divine is the cause of all of our suffering. This is what
robs us of our joy.
Though happiness and joy may seem pretty similar, they are actually quite distinct. Happiness is an externally based form of pleasure. We become happy when someone gives us a present or a compliment, or when we find ourselves in a lovely environment. We take a ride at an amusement park and we laugh.
On the other hand, joy percolates up from deep within ourselves. Joy is linked to our sense of "All is Well." No matter what, we know the rightness of everything. We feel this way when we are doing what we truly want to do, when we follow our inspirations, when we open our hearts in love.
Everything is a part of the totality and when we know that we are learning and growing, a sense of well-being pervades our every experience. Years ago a friend of mine shared with me a saying that really knocked my socks off when I first heard it. "Gratitude is my only reaction." I see now how very profound this idea is.
One beautiful way to reconnect with our joy is to take a moment to stop and think, how many times have you brought to your awareness that great mystery, that deep love, that ultimate source of creation? Have you seen it in the eyes of another? Have you felt it in the breeze in your hair? Did you feel it in the sun from the window as it warmed your hand?
I invite you this week to see how many times a day we can reach for that joy. Find that connection with something larger than ourselves and just surrender ourselves to it. Allowing it to cause that deep joy of connectedness, percolating up from the very roots of our being.
© Josephine Laing, 2014
I've heard it said that there are only three answers to prayer. The first is, "Yes, of course." The second is, "Yes, but later." And the third is, "No, I have something better for you.
The Country Western singer, Garth Brooks, titled one of his most famous songs, "Thank God for Unanswered Prayers." In it he describes his younger self's passionate plea to be able to marry a woman whom he thought would satisfy his life's desires. But years later, he sees her and realizes how grateful he is that his prayer went unanswered and how happy he is with his own wife and the life they lead together. I think his story was not about an unanswered prayer, but rather was about the third answer to prayer, "No, I have something better for you."
For my own part, in my early adult years, I settled into the life that other people had in mind for me. I achieved the required level of education, got the degree and began an acceptable career. But spirit had other ideas in mind and arranged for a course correction in the form of a major back injury that would not only change my life's direction, but would also give me the necessary tools to prepare me for what lay ahead.
Having to spend a year in bed mending my back opened the door that allowed me to fully develop my psychic ability. Knowing how important positive thoughts are in healing, I began with self-love. I also spent time meditating and interpreting my dreams in the sanctuary of my home.
I was nearly healed from the first injury when another big injury landed me in bed again. This one was so serious that I got down on my knees and prayed, to a God that I really didn't know, asking to be spared. I said that in exchange for granting me my life, I would do anything, whatever the Divine had in mind for me.
This is a very powerful experience. When we give ourselves over to Divine Will, we surrender our lives and subsequently find our true purpose. As Gandhi poetically said, "God demands nothing less than complete self surrender as the price for the only real freedom that is worth having. And when a person thus loses their self, that person immediately finds their self in the service of all that lives. Such service becomes their delight and recreation. They are now a new person, never weary of spending themselves in the service of God's creation."
Committing myself to God's will not only gave me a new and different life which was much more true to who I am, but it also taught me about the transformational power of prayer. This was the final ingredient that allowed me to truly step into the magic of my own life. It created for me my life's work as a Clairvoyant Healer. It has allowed me to thrive with joy. And it taught me the answers to all of our prayers: "Yes," "No," and, Surrender.
© Josephine Laing, 2014
