There is a joy, and it is the joy of existence—not what is happening in existence. They are two different things. There is the joy of existence, and then there is the joy of what is happening in existence. What is happening in existence we try to control and manipulate.
Sometimes things go our way. Sometimes they don't.
But then there is another joy. That joy has been there through all the years of your life, waiting to be discovered. And that joy will be there for as long as you live. It is the simple, simple joy of being alive.
In my life, there are good days and there are bad days. The days I call good are the days when everything goes according to my plan. The days when things do not go according to my plan, I call bad.
Yet every day that I have been given is above and beyond being good and bad. Each one has its own meaning and its own beauty. And I can get in touch with that beauty.
My plans will change. Sometimes the days I call bad actually end up being good. And some days when everything looks like it is going according to my plan turn out to be a disaster.
Good and bad. Life is not just about good and bad—it is beyond that. When we begin to understand that, we begin to understand that it is a privilege to be alive. It is a privilege for which this heart needs to be filled with gratitude. What we have been given is far more precious than all the good and the bad put together. All of that is transitory.
We can know that which isn't transitory, that which will be here as long as we are alive. That is our solace. That is our harbor. That is where we need to be when the storms come.
