Joy

The light in fall on a high desert plateau is awe-inspiring again and again and again. The layers of mountains visible for miles on end, the reddish tint the mountains were named after, the delicate, carved harshness in the rocks...it is a site to behold. It serves as the intense reminder that life is meant to be lived.

Here in this moment, the crashing roar of the the hundreds of voices in a restaurant; here in this moment, meeting two new dogs next door; here in this moment, a child's delighted laughter wafted up out of nothing and warming the heart.

Here in the moment, here is the beauty, right now. There is no beauty elsewhere that is more magnificent than the moment. And the moment itself needs no description - it does not have to be something more spectacular or anything different at all than what is now - it is not the what of the now, it is simply the now itself.

The heart rushes with the joy of it, it feels like pure exuberance, it feels like being in love with life itself. What a glorious feeling. How much have we forgotten this in our joy-forsaken land of ours.We have (or don't have and yearn for) every luxury money can buy and yet joy cannot be bought. It is that joyful experience of the sun hitting the side of a mountain in just such a way that the heart is in awe. It is the joyful experience of witnessing and breathing in fully the joy of the moment that is here now.

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2008 Darshan F Jessop