Balancing Joy and Sorrow
This was my morning prayer,
“On a day when so much feels so heavy, Lord, grant me balance through joy.”
It is possible for joy and heartache to live in the same house. I know, because I have danced with loved ones while wiping my own tears. I have celebrated happy news while stifling sobs.
As a child, my mother read from Gibran’s The Prophet at bedtime. I didn’t realize for many years how extraordinary that was, and she is.
Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow. And he answered: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
https://poets.org/poem/joy-and-sorrow
Liminality…
“when you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.”
Stevie Wonder sings of Joy Inside My Tears, and I know that ache well. Only by knowing one can we fully appreciate the other, and so it is.
Chelle A Wilson 