“Tell all the Truth but tell it slant” -Emily Dickinson.
Today is the third Sunday of Advent, a season of waiting and the beginning of the church calendar year.
It’s the Sunday of joy.
The dictionary defines slant as “slope or lean in a particular direction; diverge or cause to diverge from the vertical or horizontal.” or “present or view (information) from a particular angle.” (google define)
Theologian and writer Anne Roberston writes that joy is the “good mood of the soul.” Brene Brown defines joy as “an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation.” Academic and spiritual definitions aside, why does noticing joy matter? What is the slant of joy?
Joy as a “good mood of the soul” is a compelling way to think about it. When was the last time my soul was in a good mood? What does a good mood of the soul even feel like? I think it’s when something sparkles and catches me off guard. When I’m forced to pause and take the present moment just as it is. Joyful moments run deep. Joyful moments are moments of alignment when my actions or reactions match my character, virtues, and values.
Joy caught me by surprise on a recent cold, snowy morning. The night before, my kids and I read an advent piece on how chickadees live on a knife edge in winter. We learned that they have stores of seeds in various trees. But those are their backup. Finding fresh seeds gives them a better chance of surviving the cold winter months. I woke up to an unexpectedly cold, snowy morning and thought of the chickadees. I found my bag of bird seeds and sprinkled large handfuls of millet and sunflower seeds around trees where I often see chickadees gather. Midday, the chickadees, discovered the scattered seeds. I watched from my windows as they pecked, hopped, considered, and found a generous, unexpected bounty of fresh seeds on the winter day. It was joyful to watch them eat. Joy came as I thought about how they have an extra day of food in January or February. I found joy in the unspoken partnership with the birds that share my yard.
Joy doesn’t come as a result of effort or doing. It wasn’t throwing the seeds that brought joy. It was partnership and awareness of my environment that sparked joy. It was watching these little birds discover their substances for the day and share it generously. No bird claimed more than needed; they called others to partake.
This is the slant of joy: our moments of joy, reveal clues about who we are- our truer than true selves. Joy comes unexpectedly. Joy whispers, “this is what you were made for.” Joy seems to show up in moments of connection with family, friends, nature, ideas, and purpose. When I notice joy, I learn about my soul, my true self, and who I am at my core. Moments of joy are clues about my values, virtues, and character.
Joy is a feeling that points to values.
Joy is a close cousin to happiness but comes in moments of internal alignment, not outward actions.
Joy often associates with gratitude; it’s hard to tell if joy begets gratitude or gratitude joy; they serve each other well.
Joy always has something deeper to unveil.
Listen to your joy.
A {Slant} Blessing for Joy
When profound joy surprises you, pause to listen to what your soul is celebrating. When you notice your soul’s good mood, let it whisper what is truer than true about you. May you gather the clues of joy and piece them together as a map of your soul.
May joy catch you, astound you, and teach you.
Notice your moments of joy this week. What deeper truth about you does your joy reveal?
Consider a “joy examen”-at the end of the day reflect for a few minutes about the places and moments where you experienced joy in the course of your day.
One of my goals this year was to read a book of poetry every month (or 12 books of poetry in 2022). I was looking over my list, thinking I had another book or two of poetry to read and was surprised to find that I had read 12 poetry books this year!
Poetry books read in 2022: (The bolded were a few of my favorites.)
Many Miles: Mary Oliver reads Mary Oliver
And Yet: Poems by Kate Baer
unbelieve: poems on the journey to becoming a heretic by Marla Taviano
A Maze Me: Poems for Girls by Naomi Shihab Nye
Saint John of the Cross: Luminous Darkness by Mirabai Starr
How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope by James Crews
God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems of God’s Unexpected Coming by Drew Jackson
Love Poem from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky
Bread and Other Miracles by Lynn Ungar
Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open your Heart by Patricia Donegan
Thirst by Mary Oliver
Dream Work by Mary Oliver
Enjoy these thoughts on joy.
Read each slowly and see if there is one that resonates with you. Maybe jot the line down on a piece of paper and read it daily over the next week.
See what invitation to new seeing about joy you might uncover.
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
― Rumi
But we never take credit for our moments of joy because we know that they are not man-made and that we are never really responsible for them. They come when they come. They are always sudden and quick and unrepeatable. The unspeakable joy sometimes of just being alive. The miracle sometimes of being just who we are with the blue sky and the green grass, the faces of our friends and the waves of the ocean, being just what they are. The joy of release, of being suddenly well when before we were sick, of being forgiven when before we were ashamed and afraid, of finding ourselves loved when we were lost and alone. The joy of love, which is the joy of the flesh as well as the spirit. But each of us can supply his own moments, so just two more things. One is that joy is always all-encompassing; there is nothing of us left over to hate with or to be afraid with, to feel guilty with or to be selfish about. Joy is where the whole being is pointed in one direction, and it is something that by its nature a man never hoards but always wants to share. The second thing is that joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes.
-Fredrick Buechner The Hungering Dark
“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.”
― Rumi
“An infinite question is often destroyed by finite answers. To define everything is to annihilate much that gives us laughter and joy.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet