DOES IT BRING YOU JOY?
Hello beloved reader, and Welcome new subscribers! I’m so glad you’re here🥰
Recently, I shared a Note on Substack featuring the following Celtic version of the Lord’s Prayer, along with my June 2024 post, Joy as an Act of Rebellion, which included the Lord’s Prayer in its original language of Aramaic, along with some alternative translations.
This Note seems to have struck a chord — many hearts and re-stacks have been given.
Maybe that’s no surprise. With everything that’s happening in the world right now, perhaps many people are feeling a bit desperate to feel joy again. I know I am.
I was recently in tears on the phone with a friend about feeling a kind of existential crisis. I know my dharma,1 or my life’s ‘purpose’, is to evolve my consciousness, and through my writing, to support — perhaps even to spark — an evolution of consciousness in others.
And yet, even as I know this, I’ve also been feeling the weariness and weight of the world. Which makes me question, who, really, is served by that feeling?
Yes, there is sacred rage that drives political activism, and power to it.
But we also need joy.
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A recent Substack post from
titled, What’s the Meaning of Life?, led me to her Instagram, where she invited readers to answer that question in twelve words or less. I responded:DOES IT BRING YOU JOY? ARE YOU LEARNING? ARE YOU LOVING?
In another post, Beth also asked, What do you want more of in your life? Write down three words that you want to bring more of into your life. My words:
FUNENJOY 😁 CONNECTION. PRESENCE.
Yes, “funenjoy” is my new word—created from FUNandJOY.
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During these volatile times, I’m fascinated to observe that the more chaotic the exteriority of the world becomes, the more motivated human beings seem to be to cultivate peace, harmony, stillness, and joy in our interiority.
It shows me that what Ecky😉2 says is true: human beings often only get motivated to evolve and grow spiritually when faced with challenges.
Maybe the global chaos is a catalyst. Perhaps it will propel enough people into doing the inner work so that we reach a tipping point—where suddenly it feels as though everyone is waking up.
Could it be that we’ve reached a point in time where more people are valuing spiritual growth, more than financial/material growth?
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I observe this rising tide of interest in healing and awakening being reflected in mainstream culture. From books like Bessel van der Kolk’s THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE being on the paperback New York Times Bestseller list for 337 weeks — that’s more than 6 years(!) which shows you how many people are reading this book; and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s BRAIDING SWEETGRASS being on the list for 260 weeks, which is 5 years(!) — to the widely read author, Michael Pollan, recently writing this on his Substack:
When I first began writing about psychedelics a decade ago,3 I often said to myself or anyone who would listen that when Oprah invited me on to talk about psychedelics, it would be a moment, a landmark in the mainstreaming of psychedelic medicine. In January, that happened, and I traveled to her place in Santa Barbara to have a conversation about the power of psychedelics to heal.4
Perhaps these are pointers towards reaching that tipping point of everyone waking up.
Perhaps especially also because of the urgency of our ecological crisis, more human beings are recognizing the limits of material/financial growth and the crucial nature of spiritual growth which has been historically undervalued in patriarchal capitalistic societies.
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While my intention is to be sincere but not take myself too seriously, I know I can be a touch earnest at times😁 Hence, being a creative nonfiction writer with this temperament, and being obsessed with spiritual growth and evolution of consciousness, it’s too easy for me to think that my creative expression through writing has to be about something big that will save the world.
So I was very happy to be listening again recently to the audio edition of Elizabeth Gilbert’s BIG MAGIC: Creative Living Beyond Fear, and I love how she offers this reminder:
You are not required to save the world with your creativity.
(As a side note: I love being able to borrow the audio edition from the library — if you’ve never done this, check out overdrive.com.)
I breathed a sigh of relief in remembering this!
Which brings me back to the question: Does it bring you joy?
Maybe the real revolution begins when we follow what brings us true joy. Not as an escape or a spiritual bypass, but as a sacred act of transformation — from the inside out.
Maybe when we follow what brings us joy, we embrace a revolution of the soul.
p.s. If you feel called to share, I’d love to hear your responses to Beth’s two questions too! May we continue to brighten the connections between us🥰
Eckhart Tolle
In particular I remember this New Yorker article in February 2015 that Pollan wrote about psilocybin.
This whole post reminds me of that saying from Mother Teresa, and I’m paraphrasing here, “We cannot do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” ❤️
Fun-n-joy! I love it! What a wonderful single word that is ;)
Yours (and Elizabeth Gilbert’s) notion of not having to save the world with your creations resonates with me a lot. As I mentioned to you in a recent comment, I have been having a lot of fun with my writing of late. It has, in a word, been bringing me— fun-n-joy. And as an added bonus it seems, that that fun-n-joy rubs off on those who read my light-hearted stories. And somehow, at least for now, that feel like more than enough for my creativity!
Thanks Camilla :)