Joy is Found....

"…focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it."

— Greg Anderson

I went to the Flames Hockey Game last night and had a great life lesson come to mind. I would never be able to ever explain why I enjoy watching live hockey. Maybe it’s the electric atmosphere of the Pengrowth Saddle Dome filled with over 20,000 red fans cheering and moving the arena into frenzy or the great pocket dawgs and popcorn but I absolutely love it.

Now watching hockey on TV; not so fond of. The whole thing doesn’t make a ton of sense, I mean, with the TV they give you all the details and it’s live. When I am at the game I am pretty much just watching the action on the ice wondering what the heck is going on. I love it though; it really fills me with Joy.

So it made me realize just how much of a metaphor for life this is. It can come at you in one of two ways depending on who you are as a character in your own life. You can either be involved in it with all the commentary and statistics so as to be able to replay all the bumps and bruises or just live and let in happen. I much prefer just being in it, live and in person, trusting that above all else, it will be a blast.

Taking chances and extending yourself in faith can bring such enormous blessings. I have never regretted at least trying and even in failure the lessons you learn are invaluable to becoming a better person. The only regrets come as the critics oversee your life. I used to care so much about how they felt and yet now, I hardly ever think twice. What a freedom is won when your purge the concerns of others and live for yourself. It’s liberating.

So what am I on about?

Living and breathing the journey. Watching hockey games, riding an overcrowded CTrain and sharing the moments with everyone around you. For a very long time all that ever mattered was what the end outcome would be. So much of what we were about was the final destination. I know my Father in Heaven knows my heart; he knows my intent and values me as His Daughter and as a Mother raising children. My children and I have never laughed and smiled and just zenned so much as we have in this last year.

If I could pass this wisdom on to a younger generation of parents I would say; stop the keeping up and just enjoy. Go to the park, the house doesn’t have to be immaculate just clean enough, teach them the gospel but do it in a way less regimented and more inspired. Why not have them act out their favorite scriptures for scripture study, take the words and make them matter in their lives. I could write a book on the wrong way of doing things and now I can add some of the right ways.

I went to lunch with a friend today whose daughter has become close to my K3. K3 had shared some of her experiences about her Dad with my friend’s daughter and she was so shocked. What my children experienced is so foreign to some kids who have been blessed with a different circumstance and they simply can’t comprehend it. It makes them so sad. But for us, we see it differently now. We find great strength coming from it. We see our desire to change the motivating experience of our lives and we know that we would not be the people we are if we hadn’t have experienced it. The secret here is the moving forward and the finding reason in an unreasonable circumstance. That is how you find the path to wholeness.

What I would give for a different history but alas, no such luck. So here’s the answer. Embrace your history and let it strengthen and motivate you inner soul to greatness and peace. I can never fully describe the absolute tranquility of letting go but I can attest to its power to heal. It defines Zen, it is completeness. It is worth it.

So the change comes in the stopping of worrying about what may be and finding the power in the now. Eckhart Tolle’s book, "The Power of Now’ is a must read of any injured person and when coupled with the gospel that I love so much is makes sense of a senseless world. Now matters, what will be, will be because of what you do this very moment.

Enjoy the journey, the destination will soon come.