#3 Joyful Awareness 2021

Joy in the World

The Month for Cultivating Awareness of Joy

March 22 – April 30, 2021

“Why do I see the heron and the woodpecker and the orange salamander when I go into the forest? Because they are beautiful to me. I desire them, and love, far from being blind, has hawk’s eyes. Here is the creepiest part, but I will say it anyway: I see them because they know of my love and desire, and they come to me. Vision validates what is seen. All creation, therefore, longs to be seen. To be loved, go through the world with your eyes open.”

This is one of many breathtaking passages in David Brendan Hopes’ A Sense of the Morning, Field Notes of a Born Observer.

Among many things, Hopes’ book is a guide to Joyful Awareness. One of his teachings implies that when you “see” things that bring you joy, you give them joy.

On a glorious about-to-burst-into-Spring day, numerous wonders have tentatively teased themselves into existence, waiting to be seen and celebrated by humans, insects, butterflies, bees, birds. And we who see, or smell, or touch, these wonders make music with the sounds of our delight and gratitude.

The gallant plum tree, daring the wind and cold to do their worst, issues from among its greening leaves many exquisitely tender bubbles of alluring white and golden blossoms. What bee or person could resist coming close to admire, to touch, to drink?

Consider the possibility that in the very act of admiring and thanking the plum tree for its unfailing faithfulness to its personal, passionate love affair with the sun (which it shares with its mothering earth) we might help make the plum tree happy! How then can we dare to resist offering profound love and gratitude to all this wild burst of spring glory? Singing with our eyes, our words, our humming sounds, our joy-filled awareness.

It’s equally possible – since we too are part of the natural world, though we sometimes forget – that being happily and gratefully aware of the smiling dog, the busy person, the singing bird, the kind helper in the grocery store, or in the next line or car will add to their happiness and joy, as well as our own. And as David Brendan Hopes proposes, our “love” may help to make each of these miracles of life more visible to us. So it grows, this joy, this possibility, this hope.

Joy in the World.

And in me.

Praise. Praise. Praise.