Joy in the World

It's a wonderful time to get out of doors and spend some time amongst the trees, grasses and gardens that surround you. Steep yourself in the peace that is the world of nature; you will not regret even one moment that you spend doing so.

We tend to busy ourselves so much with so many indoor details that we forget just how good it feels to be outside. When we do go outside, we are often on our way to another building. A world of incredible beauty and peace is available to us. It doesn't cost a penny and it never fails.

Go outside, even if only for a few minutes, and take a few deep breaths. Immediately you will feel the peace and simplicity of it wash over you. It is not only that the joy in the world can be felt there, but that it makes room for the joy that is in you to emerge. The two meet, in an effortless embrace, and you, composed largely of water - water being the most joyful substance on Earth - are then filled with joy.

I have neighbours who say to me, "I'll go for a walk if someone goes with me." So I go for a walk with them. But if the truth be told, I'd just as soon go on my own for a walk. I prefer, oftentimes, the solitary expedition into the natural world because it is precisely the non-human aspect of the natural world which I am there to feel and enjoy. If I am accompanied by another person, I am more aware of that person than I am of the world around me. If you are comfortable doing so, go out into the natural world on your own and spend a little time there just being, just feeling, just taking it all in.

Often we go out of doors to move our bodies. We run, walk, bicycle and hike. We golf or garden. It's good to get moving. Yet, there is a stillness in the world of nature that can be deeply sustaining to us. It calls forth an answering stillness within us. And this stillness is only truly met when we are still. Sometimes I go out into the world and I sit somewhere for a time. I sit and sit and if I could, I would sit there forever, because the stillness there feels like heaven on Earth to me. I lack nothing, as I sit there, out in the natural world. An inner stillness invites me to breathe more slowly, more deeply. I am slowed. I am deepened. And the peace within me at such moments fills me with joy such as I can only wish all other human beings to feel. It is beyond words. It is beyond time. It is vast and limitless. It is not to be found within our homes, although we can bring it indoors with us when we come, silent from the great solemnity and wonder of it, back inside.

There is such joy in the world around us. It lives in the living things with which we are surrounded. It meets our own joy, sometimes hidden, buried by all that we have to do, surrounded, besieged by all the demands that we place upon ourselves. It meets our joy and calls to it and it takes only a moment, only the briefest pause before you get back into the car, or open the front door.

Take that moment. Breathe deeply. Feel the joy that is inherent in the natural world that surrounds you. Know that it is yours; whenever you turn to it, it will be there. Rejoice therefore.