Meditations By Ian White Maher: Praise | Gratitude | Joy | Transformation

We often speak of joy as if it is a synonym for happiness, but happiness and joy are different. Happiness is an intimately personal sensation. Joy is about connection...Joy is about feeling a part of something larger than yourself. It is the sensation that overwhelms the shell of the individual and opens us into a sense of belonging and being with. Very often we connect joy with happiness because we feel happy when the sense of belonging overwhelms us. Somewhere along the way we got it into our heads that religion and God is not sensual, not joyful. And somewhere along the way we learned or were taught that loving life is going to get us in trouble, because maybe we won’t be as efficient at work. There is this mistrust of enjoyment, of really savoring this life we have…and taking the time to savor it. And I believe that [Barbara] Ehernreich is right, we are starved for joy.