Post-Mortem Lesson 8: A Moment Of Pristine Joy

"People have forgotten this truth...but you mustn't forget it. You become responsible for what you've tamed." - the fox to The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

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How much would you give for a singular moment of pristine joy?

If someone asked me this a few months ago, I would probably say, I would give my life and soul for it. Why so, it is because I thought i have become too despondent to think that joy can co-exist with my sorrow: I thought that when one is awake, the other is asleep. That's what Gibran said anyway.

However, it seems to me that I exist in an unusual yet comforting condition that I am being cared for by someone from another dimension, and that there is a calming assurance that I do deserve even just a singular moment of joy, in spite of him. Or more exactly, in spite of his absence.

That it is ok for me to be happy. That I need not feel guilty about it.

Joy came, sooner than I expected. Not once. Not twice. Many times over. It came like multiple slivers of light in a dark room that is my life as I have known many months ago.

[I did not have to give up my life and soul. I just had to open my heart and mind a bit.]

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Now a new question arises: How much would I give for eternal joy, if ever there is such a thing?

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[I am not too sure now .... but I want it bad, so badly ... ]

Post-Mortem Lesson 7: Joy and Sorrow

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

- Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet"

Before I used to ask why something that gives you joy can give you sorrow in one unfortunate instance.

I once even arrived at a rather unjust conclusion that attachment to earthly things has a lot to do with this. That it is all organic, a man's tendency to hold on to his physical possessions and attributes.

I have been wrong, of course....there are things beyond the physical realm that I failed to factor in.

I fully understand now.