Never mind pleasure. Search out joy. Pleasure is
its shadow. But joy is real, a secret splendor
running through all creation.
Like gold, it doesn’t lie about the streets waiting
to be picked up. It has to be dug for, with diligence
and passion. It’s in people, to be found through
the practice of love. It’s in work, in the rigorous
exercise of powers of mind or body or spirit. It’s a
gift the created world is perpetually offering; the
price of it is untiring attention to the present
moment. It is to be found always and only in the
contemplation of reality.
Hunt it down, pursue it, track it to its lair where
it dwells. Not in pleasures and pastimes, distractions,
piled-up satisfactions, and busyness. It dwells in truth,
and nowhere else.
That’s why it matters. It will show you moment by
moment where truth is for you. And when you know that,
cleave to it, turn not aside, be given up to that. That,
if you will will, is a way of life worth living.
~Fae Malania
Leave a Reply