Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

  “There are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background, from joy to joy to joy…”  Li-Young Lee I thought of this quotation as I have experienced the joy, relief, sense of freedom, and the delight in the tangible presence of loved ones now that the worst of the pandemic seems to be behind us – though I am aware of necessary caution.  It has been a going from joy to joy to joy.  I just helped my cousin celebrate her 93 rd  birthday, surrounded, finally, by people who love her and had longed for her delightful conversation, sass, spark, and tenderness – we truly rejoiced in that event – from joy to joy.   I am led to ponder, however, the deeper meanings to these days – what opens us, me, to joy?  How do I know it as God intends?  How is it different from being happy?  Contented?  How does being “in joy” open me to give, respond, step out more courageously, more generously? ...

Growing up in a farming community, we always heard the old saying “There’s no such thing as a happy farmer” – referring to the lack of rain or too much rain, lack of heat or too much heat – no condition was ever optimal!  I think we look at our lives like that, at times anyway, saying, “If I only had more time….” Or “If that person wasn’t in the picture it would all be easier…..or “if you would only see it my way…”  It might be easier never to admit to being happy, but it certainly isn’t healthier or wiser or even holier!  Of course we must acknowledge and embrace the difficulties, the stumbling blocks (or blockheads!) that seem to impede our path to joy – but it’s the how we integrate all of that tough stuff with a call to be happy that is the challenge.  One translation of the line from Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:4 is “I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord.”  Pie in the sky?  Impossible?  I think no...