This topic has been popping up around me a lot lately so I feel pressed to address it, speak and mediate (or type, duh) on it.
Our lives are abundant, yet we never quite seem to reach satisfactory satisfaction. As the Arctic Monkeys say “Satisfaction is a distant memory” (Ru Mine). It’s so distant, it practically doesn’t exist.
I stopped searching for satisfaction a good while ago. There was no need anymore for so fleeting, and frankly, unsatisfying. Satisfaction is just a level, and a level that can be surpassed.
And as a result, you could say I’ve found joy. I’ve been released from the chains of needing to be satisfied, and freed into a constant, abundant space of joy.
“I found my life when I laid it down.”
I always introduce myself as “pas timide et toujours joyeuse*” if and when I make a new friend in France, because that’s me.
“Toujours mignonne, toujours souriante**”
I mean, that IS me. I really dislike being down as it brings others down too – and that is never my game plan. I would always prefer to make the effort to smile, be polite and welcoming than spend a single moment of my life frowning.
So to get to the nitty gritty.
If possible: listen to Great Wide Open by Thirty Seconds To Mars on YouTube while reading the following. It matters.
Abundance follows multiplication. Joy is like the multiplication of happiness and true satisfaction. With joy, we complete things wholly and with a full heart, plein cœur as the French would say.
Everything can be multiplied. Some things may take more effort than others but at the end of the day, you will see their effect.
Unfortunately, however, not all the things that are multiplied are what we want, or they can even be rather unfavourable. They say things come in threes, both good and bad.
We all want golden joy, shimmering, dazzling, unbelievable, undeniable joy. But, we must learn it come to us rather than seeking it.
“The pursuit of happiness” is of late a commonly coined phrase. But I find, like satisfaction, happiness to be fleeting.
It’s not a question of faith, belief, or even trust, but one of hope and patience, expectant that abundance will come after multiplication has taken its course, then joy. Joy, oh incredible joy will come.
Listen to: Live Like A Dream, Thirty Seconds To Mars
I wish but only joy for you all. There isn’t a soul that doesn’t deserve joy, and no soul past forgiveness. No matter what anyone says. Always listen to your heart and be open to forgive.
What I love about joy is that it doesn’t expect something of a person, and it’s entirely individual. Different people have different joys, experience different joy and joy differently and feel joy differently. Feel and experience are different, in my opinion – I’ll let you debate that in your own mind.
So after reading this almost-devotional like blog post, I hope you’ve tapped into a reflection on what Hoy means for you. Your joy is completely that: yours.
So stride forth, abundant in life, and let joy multiply and flow through your veins.
Love,
Anna
*not shy, always joyous
**always sweet, always smiling
kulayrosas 