A Community of Souls...exploring the mystery of being human
Joy is found in the relation….Without relationship, there is no joy. Relation in its truest sense is a dialogue. This dialogue of time and place stimulates our senses and awakens us to joy.
Benjamin Martin
On This Day…
Lailat al Quadr (Night of Decree, Night of Measures): Islamic remembrance of the night Muhammad received the first verses of the Koran
Let me tell you about Monkey Golf. The story goes that about a decade ago, in India, near a temple where monkeys abound, a huge, expensive and very exquisite golf course was built. Fit for kings. But when the kings came to play golf and hit their balls true or not, no matter what the lie, whether on the fairways, in the rough, the sand or the greens, the monkeys would dash out, grab each ball, run off and drop the ball wherever their wont. Of course, that ruined the game the kings intended to play. How can you play SERIOUS golf when the monkeys do what they want with your balls? So the kings gave up the game of SERIOUS golf and started playing monkey golf. Wherever a monkey dropped the ball, the king laughed and played the ball from there. And immediately the game became joyous because, after all, what else can you do but laugh at your plans until you fall down, crying with joy. And of course, people became masters at golf because they got to play many situations they hadn’t been prepared for. And, over time, Monkey Golf became a great joy. Joy, always joy, a world filled with joy.
Ben Leichtling
When I think of my favorite songs that I listen to when I am in “a funk,” I realize how many of them are songs about joy and songs about love—and how many of them use both words in their titles….Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Music…will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain joy alive in you.” As I have found sustenance, life-changing and life-giving moments through music, especially through my playlist of favorites, may you each come to find your “playlist of favorites”—whether it is in music, or in reading, or in meditating, cooking, writing, cleaning or praying. Unite joy with your love. May it lead you to the best of you where you become one with all that is human and with all that is divine.
Earl Behnke
O Holy Spirit,
I am positioned between walls
that will not budge.
I am at the base of mountains
that will not move.
I am stuck beneath clouds
seamed with threatening rain.
And yet, despite those conditions,
I know a joy—
a joy without conditions—
a joy that sustains me
even when the days are sour
and my passage blocked.
This unconditional joy rides
upon the intake of my breath
and circulates a rejuvenating life.
You are That—
that Breath,
that Joy,
that Life.
In Your Image. Amen.
Benjamin Martin
On This Day…
Adrienne Rich born 1929 in Baltimore, Maryland, died 2012: poet
Works: Diving Into the Wreck, The Dream of a Common Language, On Lies, Secrets and Silence
Quotes: “Lying is done with words and also with silence.” “When a woman tells the truth, she is creating the possibility for more truth around her.” “Every journey into the past is complicated by delusions, false memories, false naming of real events.”
Happiness and unhappiness come from very thoughtful, serious, logical reasons. I think Marx approved of happiness, but only in the right circumstances. I think Freud approved of happiness, but only in the right circumstances. I think they thought that unhappiness is the normal state (since we’re oppressed and repressed) and that we must have good, material reasons to feel happy or unhappy…. Joy is completely unreasonable; there is no reason to feel joy. “The heart has reasons that reason doth not know.” I think Marx disapproved of joy; there are never the right circumstances for joy. I think Freud disapproved of joy; you are kidding yourself if you feel full of joy. How can something good and true come up from the pit of darkness? How can death be faced with joy?
….Joy comes unbidden from the inside. Joy rises up irresistibly inside of us and bursts out. Joy is natural; you have to work hard to suppress joy; senseless and random are the acts of joy. Joy is more than a bubbling spring welling up inside; joy springs; joy is a gusher. Joy infests and saturates every breath. Let fairness, disappointment, righteousness go. Let pride, resentment, anger go. Let hard work, well-done and good-job go. Instead, make a joyful noise. Dance then, wherever you may be. All atoms are dancing; all our atoms are dancing; all our cells are dancing; how can our tongues and feet resist? Joy, ecstasy; joy evermore.
Ben Leichtling
