Overcome The Fear of Joy

As humans, we are more afraid of joy than any other emotion. We fear it because we know that we can lose it, and loss of something is more traumatic to the human consciousness than never having acquired something in the first place. The irony of this is that our greatest goal as a species is to experience life. But that breadth of human capacity terrifies us. And so we shut down. We breakdown. We remove ourselves from the moment so that we don’t risk losing it.

Bottom line: life can be hard sometimes.

The sunrise is one of my most favourite times of the day. Because there is this brief time when you can start to see the sun peeking up over the horizon and in a single incredible moment, the light of day rushes in. It floods across the landscape. It pours through the trees. It fills the space between the mountains. There was an exquisite stillness to it that always takes my breath away.

And it reminds me that, yes, it’s fleeting. All of it is.

The good and the bad. The joy and the sadness. The light and the dark.

This moment, this beauty, this experience.

And it scares us. The temporary feeling of it all.

While we’re powerful and strong and capable of amazing things, we’re also just small children wanting to know that everything’s going to be alright.

I think it’s one of the most beautiful dichotomies of being human.

And when I sit there, in the early morning hours of the day, I suddenly feel overcome with one single thought…

Let’s rush in.

Let’s rush into our lives the way the light rushes through the trees.

Let’s smile at strangers and make new friends and show up as often as possible. Let’s open ourselves up…and pour ourselves out…and let others in. Let’s give ourselves permission to feel every moment. Truly, madly, deeply. Let’s surrender. Let’s look up at the stars and realize what an incredible miracle we are. Let’s belong to each other. Let’s put photos on our walls and memories in our hearts. Let’s laugh together and cry together and split wide open together. Let’s turn our lives into stories that our grandchildren will share. Let’s honour each other’s struggles and the battles that have been fought along the way. Let’s raise each other up and stop tearing ourselves down. Let’s chase big dreams and take big risks and face big fears. Let’s replace guilt with love and comparison with grace and fear with courage.

Let’s find the beautiful thread that ties everything together and follow it ‘till the end.

Let’s rush into that joy and let ourselves be consumed by it.

Our experience as humans may be fleeting.

Our love for each other doesn’t have to be.

♥️