The Key of Joy

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? Albert Camus

Yesterday, my lovely friend BA added a link to her comment on my blog. It is so beautiful and powerful, I wanted to ensure everyone saw it. So, I'm including it at the end of today's blog.

Before meditation last night I met a friend for tea. One of the comments he made set me to wondering -- really? Is that true?

All humans seek is validation, he said. It is our primal need. A universal truth.

Really, I wondered?

Later, in meditation, his statement slipped into my consciousness. Validation. I validate you. you validate me. Life is about validating each other. Am I real if you do not validate me? Do I exist without your validation -- or my own validation?

Our theme for last night's meditation was Aries and our Christ-like impulse for rebirth. In the pre-meditation instructions, Del, our guide, read the following:

Aries coincides with the Easter Festival, the great Christian festival of rebirth. The Crucifixion experience was meant to demonstrate the reality of “life more abundant”, not the focus upon death that has characterised the church’s interpretation of the event. The keynote of the new age understanding of this festival will be upon resurrection, symbolising the precipitation on Earth of a new kingdom in which all will be free from death and released from the cross of matter. Christ came to show us the nature of the “saved life”, to demonstrate the quality of the eternal self which is in everyone. And the lesson of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is that the lower nature must die in order that the higher may manifest, and the eternal immortal soul must rise from the tomb of matter.
Each year at this festival there arises the restoration and renewal of all life in all human hearts. “I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule.” .

At one point during practice, I saw myself running in the desert. Scattered all around me I saw the many facets of me I believed I needed to gather and reintegrate. I was so scared these many parts of me would escape, that I would never be able to collect all of them, that I would never be whole, I kept chasing after them. And then, a voice whispered. Stand still. Be still. Still your fears. Allow. Allow integration to happen. Allow life. Allow rebirth. Allow.

I stood. Still.
Still
I feared.
I feared there would be nothing.
I would be nothing more than this fragmented being running after herself.

I let the fires of fear consume me. And in their consumption I felt myself become whole. Complete. One.

Ah, the voice whispered. You fear you do not exist. You fear you exist.

The duality exists.

With or without your fears.

Fear not.

The duality exists. Your existence on this human plane is but a nano-second of your eternal existence on your soul-full being. You are whole. You have always been whole. Wholeness becomes you.

And I breathed and for one exquisite moment felt the deep knowing of my soul's journey. Felt it rising up within me, around me, of me.

And in that moment I knew, fear is just part of this human journey. Fear is just a human emotion. Like trust and hope and anticipation. Human, all of it.

With or without fear. With or without validation, we are all participating in this human experiment called, life on earth. We are the subject of our experimentation. We are the object of our lives. Whether we fear, or not, is optional. We are here to live this one wild and precious moment in the rapture of now. It is why we're here.

Never, do I need to fear it.

always do I need to live it. Experience it. Express it. Evolve through it.

And in the process, I get to choose -- happiness. Or not. In the way I lead my life. I get to choose harmony, or discord. It is always, my choice in how I live the moment.

Me, I'm choosing joy today. right now in the moment of now. Whatever is happening, I choose to experience it in the key of Joy.

Nameste.