Joy

"If all I have is now, where will I look for Joy?"  Mark Nepo

Where indeed?  We as humans seem wired to strive for something else, some place else, someone else.  As Nepo says, we "stray and dream of lives other than our own."  It is probably a functional quality to keep evolution going.  How would inventions happen, lives improve, things evolve -- if we did not strive for something else?  But.  It can also have a downside, and that downside is that we do not relax and live in our present lives.  As Eckhart Tolle would say, "our NOW." 

This is the last day of 2012.  I am happy to say goodbye to this year, learn from the experiences it brought me, and choose how I want to be in 2013.  I was with a woman this week whose husband died of dementia-related causes.  She and I have supported each other over this long sojourn, and I was happy to take her a hot dish and some compassionate listening.  It must be bittersweet for her, as it is for any of us who are caregivers for someone with dementia.  Our NOW is both sweet and filled with sadness, but I think Mark Nepo is right --- the only way we find joy is being attentive to now.  So, as 2012 ends, I wish you, dear readers, in 2013 boundless joy, optimal health and prosperity, peace, love and the ability to live in the now.