Lightness Of Being

image credit: alicepopkorn

It’s the week after Labor Day and that means the beginning of the school year. I don’t have many fond memories of the first week of school growing up, and when I feel brave enough some day I will tell the story of “The Water Truck”. My daughter on the other hand loved school and I remember when she was in Grade 5, she got up early every morning to meet her friend at her home so they could walk to school together. Her friend’s parents played opera music very loudly that early in the morning and my daughter loved it. She described it as, “ feeling big aliveness.”

That feeling of big aliveness or “Joie de vivre” is the goal of the spiritual healing journey, and many of us have different interpretations of its meaning and have as many varied ways of attaining it. I admire people who have that lightheartedness which is the essence of the experience of the joy of life. I once lived in a house with two other women. Stella was not a morning person while Marge was a happy go lucky type who was always singing. I loved being around Marge in fact I married someone like her. My husband often bursts into song; he always seems to have the perfect line from a song for every circumstance. As we were having lunch today, he was singing me a silly love-song between bites. I remember how Marge’s singing in the morning would drive Stella crazy. Stella would bang the breakfast things around. I stayed out of the kitchen when Stella was in one of her moods. One day Stella couldn’t take it anymore and shouted to Marge, “Do you have to do that here, be so damn cheerful?” It was such an incredible moment, I watched them both crack up with laughter and gave each other a big hug. After that, Marge kept on singing in the morning and her cheerfulness seemed to rub off on Stella.

Sometimes it takes some effort to sustain a lighthearted state when there is so much to worry about. How do you keep it light? My friend Marge and my husband like to sing. I like to laugh at my own foibles, write, draw, and dig in the garden.