Strangely, it is not just in the staggering, heart-breaking moments of great beauty and grandeur that we feel moments of immense joy, although these moments are to be savored, and indeed, hoped for. Joy can come in quiet ways, in ways so delicate, so unobtrusive; we who long for the majestic, we who look for vivid displays of magnificent will fail to see it.
We who have been trained to watch out for spectacular visual displays, we who have been weaned on flavorful outbursts of food and delicacy, we who listen for the resounding cymbals and the rolling drums, we who get a thrill from sensational wonders must learn to consider the unlikely place of tranquility, in hushed undertones, in the faint shades of everyday of hues.
We cannot be in a constant state of excitement and exuberance. The heart can’t bear it. The soul must be a way to restore its tattered edges.
Tranquility. Solitude. Calmness. These too can be elixir of real joy. These too can be the very fountain where we are refreshed, restored, renewed.
The simple things can be deep – but we have often exchanged them for the complicated and the shallow. And we pay a great price when we continue to do this.
We who have been trained to watch out for spectacular visual displays, we who have been weaned on flavorful outbursts of food and delicacy, we who listen for the resounding cymbals and the rolling drums, we who get a thrill from sensational wonders must learn to consider the unlikely place of tranquility, in hushed undertones, in the faint shades of everyday of hues.
We cannot be in a constant state of excitement and exuberance. The heart can’t bear it. The soul must be a way to restore its tattered edges.
Tranquility. Solitude. Calmness. These too can be elixir of real joy. These too can be the very fountain where we are refreshed, restored, renewed.
The simple things can be deep – but we have often exchanged them for the complicated and the shallow. And we pay a great price when we continue to do this.
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