Audubon on other minds and the secret knowledge of animals, the paradox of joy with Nick Cave and Lisel Mueller, how Dostoyevsky became a writer
through accident or illness, in the disappointment of our hopes. Just as day does not exist without night, nor life without death, joy cannot exist apart from sorrow. There is pain in life as well as pleasure, but we can accept the pain as long as we are not stuck in it. We can accept loss if we know we are not condemned to grieve continually. We c
... See moreAlexander Lowen • Joy: The Surrender to the Body and to Life (Compass)
Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows — ‘What a world you’ve got inside you.’ | The On Being Project
onbeing.orgJoy is a delicious luxury that we experience most cautiously, for tragedy conceals itself around every corner.
Lisa See • The Island of Sea Women: A Novel
After all, it is only in anticipation of sorrow that joy seems frivolous. We become so used to bracing for the next devastation, we don’t have time or emotional energy to rejoice. For some of us, this moves us to a permanent seriousness, always on guard against the evils of this world. Some of us even begin to believe we are not worthy of pleasure
... See moreCole Arthur Riley • This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us
Choose joy. Choose it like a child chooses the shoe to put on the right foot, the crayon to paint a sky. Choose it at first consciously, effortfully, pressing against the weight of a world heavy with reasons for sorrow, restless with need for action. Feel the sorrow, take the action, but keep pressing the weight of joy against it all, until it beco... See more