Joy

“You are joy, looking for a way to express. It’s not just that your purpose is joy, it is that you are joy. You are love and joy and freedom and clarity expressing.” Abraham Hicks 

Dear Ones,
when I sat down this morning  to write a few words about joy, I had the image of my grandfather. And rightly so. He was the one who taught me about joy in my early years. Not by explaining, but by living it. By living it in spite of any outside circumstances. Living in Prague in his early twenties, then occupied by the Germans, I can imagine his early life was not always easy but he would never complain and there was no bitterness in his deep soothing voice. In his features you could still trace once dashing looks and his surprisingly youthful face revealed only the lines of those who smile often. That’s how I remember him. Smiling…Basking…As a little girl I loved watching him. He was a man of many passions. And one of them was beekeeping. I think it was his meditation. To me he looked like a magician. Calm, focused, slow moving and surrounded by a swarm of bees, he would do his work. And it was a labour of love. There was no doubt about it. Love was the reason he never got stung…When it was time to take a break, he would stop, light up his cigarette, breathe deeply and as he looked around, he would take everything in. He could see beauty. You could tell. Especially in nature. After years living in Prague, he had to return to the land of his childhood. As he would sum it up. “I missed the forest, I had to come back.” And you could see that “I had to come back” in his eyes, in those breaks between the work. As he looked at the lilacs down in the yard or the apple trees in blossom just behind the bee house. My grandfather knew about joy. And I am so thankful that this feature was passed down to me. It is one of the greatest gifts in life to be able to find joy hidden in every moment. In spite of the sorrow and difficulties we all encounter at times, joy is somehow always present. It is who we truly are at the core of our being. It is a place to return as often as we can. It is our true identity. Joy…    
I am looking forward to meditating with you soon.
Lots of love,
Jana x x