I have not written much lately because something has been stirring in my heart that I have not been able to put on paper. I have been working over the last months to try and bring the secrets of happiness to light. But in the midst of that journey, I found something was desperately missing. I wracked my brain trying to pinpoint it. I searched deep within myself trying to identify what didn't feel whole.
And now I know I finally put my finger on it.
From the words of the song Hallelujah, originally by Leonard Cohen:
it's not someone who's seen the light, its a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
Let me tell you a story...There was a young man who lived in the remote islands of Panama. His name was Nigel. His mother gave birth to him when she was very young and was unprepared to care for a baby, so his grandmother raised him. When he was in his late teens, the old woman passed away. Now in the islands of Panama, there is no undertaker. There is no one to take your loved one to a funeral home, or to embalm their body, or even to get them ready for a simple burial. And so it was left to Nigel to bathe his grandmother's body (which had been dead and in the heat for several days), dress her in her finest clothes, lay her in a wooden casket, and load her into the back of a truck to bring her to the small church for the funeral service which was attended by most of the people in the village.
Have you ever seen a dead body? How about one that had been dead for several days? Can you imagine the trauma young Nigel must have endured getting his grandmother ready for burial?
I teach people how to be happy. What I teach is based on what I learned about happiness while living in Latin America. The lovely people there are connected to their communities, to nature, to God, and to their authentic selves. And while those deep connections are what foster real, lasting happiness, they are not just about butterflies and flowers. Raw emotion and unfiltered life at their most base and real depths are central to human experience in the jungles and mountains of Mexico and Central America. Yes, there is dancing and family and rich food and fresh air and good friends and lots of laughter. But these people who love much also suffer much.
And you suffer too. We all do.
Real joy is not experienced after the trails of life are over. It is experienced in the midst of them.
Nigel brought his grandmother's body, wreathed in flowers to help alleviated the smell, to church. And when he arrived, his aunts and cousins and friends and neighbors surrounded him. They hugged him hard and cried with him unashamedly. They poured their love into him. There were no hollow, placating kisses or well-dressed words of consolation. Rather there was a sharing of the burden of grief in openness and authenticity.
When was the last time you felt the radiating energy of love sink past your skin and into your bones as someone hugged you tightly and didn't let go? Do you understand the depth of connection there? Have you felt the strength of the foundation for joy created in that place?
It is from this place of utter vulnerability that real relationships are forged. And it is from the place of standing with both feet solidly planted on the ground, not running from sorrow, but allowing loss to highlight love, that everything becomes more bright and beautiful. For it is when we stand, not alone, but rather firmly connected to each other and to God, that fear and anguish can pass through us and leave us light and free. And the joy that remains can never be shaken for it comes, not from a place of temporary satisfaction, but rather from a place of raw love, hearty and robust and strong. That joy has been tested. It has been refined in the fires of human suffering.
Yes, joy that has been refined in the fires of human suffering.
This is joy that is complete.
Please take a minute to listen to the song at the link below. The rendition is voices only, without instruments, and powerfully moving. And as you listen, catch the words it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah.
Hallelujah performed by Pentatonix
Nigel, by the way, is one of the most free and joyful people I know.
In much love and with this humble offering,
laura
Comments
Post a Comment