“You wander from room to room hunting for the diamond necklace that is already around your neck.” ~Rumi
It’s the lesson I’m learning again and again as I practice being a joy-warrior: Joy is always right here. And the only that keeps me from seeing it is the cloud of stories I stir up as I trip into one of life’s potholes. I’ve learned how it works. You hit a bump and a little wash of emotional discomfort seeps into your system. To explain it, your mind pulls out a story you have associated with the feeling in the past. Focusing on the story, you generate more of the associated feelings and fill in more details of the story, and round and round you go until reality interrupts.
I’ll tell you the most embarrassing instance of this that I remember. I was sitting on the couch in my living room remembering an argument I had the night before with a friend. I was still mad, and I revived the argument in my head, getting madder by the minute, arguing more. Finally I decided I needed a cup of coffee and I went to the kitchen and poured two cups, one for me and one for my friend, still arguing all the time. Not until I walked back into the living room with the cups of coffee in my hands did I realize my friend wasn’t even there. The whole argument was nothing more than a figment of my imagination. To my credit, I remember laughing at myself as I realized the reality of the situation.
I was looking for the diamond necklace. In this case, it was a desire for restored peace between my friend and me. And the fact was our friendship was as secure and sparkling as it had ever been. I had allowed the memory of one little argument to catch me up in a story that I built into a a blinding war. In truth, it didn’t matter that his opinion was different than mine. We loved each other anyway. Our friendship was big enough to accommodate some differences.
Life handed me another exercise in remembering my diamond necklace this morning. It wasn’t nearly as drastic. I simply woke to a piece of irritating news and was stewing over it as I went to the kitchen to start breakfast. But outside my windows, the azalea’s bright pink blossoms were glowing against the fresh green world beyond it, and suddenly a little hummingbird appeared and darted from blossom to blossom. No mere story could stand against such a sight. Joy was right there, right that very moment. All I had to do was let in its radiant light.
That’s always the case. It’s only our stories that get in the way of remembering our joy , the tales we spin in our mind, roaming from room to roam, looking for the diamond’s sparkle when its with us all the time. This week I ran across a little set of instructions for getting to the space where the diamonds shine. It’s from an ancient Indian teacher named Tilopa. Here’s what he says: “Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don’t try to figure anything out. Don’t try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.”
I wrote the words “Let go of what is happening now” on a card and set it on my desk. Seeing it, I smile. It’s such a gift when reminders come along, isn’t it?
May you find them dropping into your life this week like gentle flower petals. And may your diamonds always shine.