Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.
I thought of these words by Eckhart Tolle as I watched the wonderful video below. I thought that the fabulous flash mob, appearing unbidden and as if from nowhere, illustrates the nature of joy itself.
Perhaps this is why my little daughter, now nearly ten months old, is such a constant source of joy. I suppose that she did, literally, ‘arise from within’ – in that I grew her in my body. She is now and forever a part of my body, just one that happens to walk around outside it. Makes for a rather finely-tuned life, when her every cry of distress registers in your bones like an electric flicker. But the anxiety of parenthood is a whole other story. And it’s nothing compared to the joy. The joy plugs you into something huge.
As I watch her, I can’t help but surrender happily and unconsciously to nothing more than the present moment. The way her eyelashes are golden in the sunlight. The slow spread of her smile, as delight radiates outward from the centre of her little body. The way she holds herself still, as we listen to the soft squeaking murmur of the ducks. Nothing more than that. And yet in those moments, where I treasure the very breath that leaves my lungs because it is rooting me in this glorious, golden present, it is everything. Because those are the moments when joy floods my whole being.
No wonder they say that children are a gift from God. It is hard, so hard, to find the inner stillness that we need to access the joy of just being, or to hold it for more than a few moments. And so He gave us children, to show us the way.
Here’s to finding joy in life’s smallest moments. And also to flash mobs. Because they are awesome.
x Cesca
