Tonight I talked with my dear friend, Donna, who helped me edit Thirsting for a Raindrop. She finished Thirsting for Joy today and said she loved it. Donna doesn’t get all into the metaphysics of it, but she loves stories. She said something I found interesting: “It’s like an adult fairy tale book.” I think Donna was apprehensive that this might insult me, but I found it to be a great complement! The fairy tales (the real ones not the versions Disney and others have corrupted) are well written stories that have deeper meanings. Thanks Donna for your honesty and your friendship. I love it! Adult Fairy Tales…interesting book title but that’s taken by another genre! Even more joyful was the story Donna told me about walking down the street holding hands with her husband. They saw a single male friend and he said, “That’s what I want, someone to hold hands with.” Donna’s husband looked at him very seriously, leaned in a little and said, “It’s very expensive.”

“Create more joy,” was the message I got out of my meditation.
“How do I do that?” I wondered. There was no immediate response. I had been at this long enough to know that when I received a clear idea but no details, the details would come eventually..
‘Create more joy. Nice assignment,’ I thought.’ There is not enough joy in the world and I am happy to create more.’
I had facilitated a teleconference meditation which had stopped due to busy lives. It seemed to go in spurts and runs depending on interest and availability of the participants from various classes I had facilitated. I sent out an email and talked to a few former students and clients and interest picked up once again. We started weekly calls. These calls were not money makers, rather a service to Spirit. This time the assignment was to facilitate the group in creating more joy. Some direction came: ‘Times would be coming when the earth would need us to create joy to balance out other energies.’ I did not know what that meant at the time, but I felt the urgency to prepare.
“Imagine a sunflower in all its complex details,” I led the meditation group on the teleconference line. “Let it become large, imagine the colors, the glorious sunshine yellow contrasted with the black spiral of seeds. Notice the regularity of the spiral and how pleasing it is to look at. Know it follows the magical Fibonacci spiral formula found throughout nature. Feel joy at this wonderment,” I said pausing to allow the participants to get the vision and the feeling clearly in their consciousness. Gentle relaxation music played in the background.
“Now when you have the sunflower so clear that you can see, touch, smell and taste it, feel the joy it represents. Let your heart soar with joy.” Pausing again to allow imagination to create.
“Now, imagine the sunflower condensing to a size that is easy to swallow into your heart...let it glow there with joy...” the meditation went on and on with images and memories of joy. We created large bubbles of joy. We sent joy to those we knew who needed it. We imagined enveloping our houses or apartment buildings with joy. We imagined sending joy into our neighborhoods. We imagined enveloping the entire county, state, and eventually joining all our bubbles to surround the earth with joy. We were filled with joy! What a lovely energy.
This led to a series of Meditations for Joy.
“Imagine the tableau of your life and ask to see all the places of joy.” This meditation, we had four people physically present and I could see their smiles. Later everyone shared about joyful experiences they remembered, some long forgotten. Faces glowed with joy. Everyone left with a smile and a glow.
A few days later one of my client/student/friend/colleagues came for a session.
“Hi Karen,” I said into an ear full of hair.
“Oh, how I've missed you!” declared Karen with a tight hug.
“Me too!” I agreed happily.
We danced and laughed with the joy of seeing each other again knowing we had a good portion of the day to spend together. We went to the healing room and had a session filled with laughter and joy - a particularly wonderful healing method. I had prepared a special, yummy lunch which we devoured with pleasure.
“The Eno River has been calling me, want to go?” I asked as we cleaned the lunch dishes.
“Yes, that sounds like fun. Can we get some tea on the way?”
I led the way to a teahouse and to the part of the river that I had visited during my last stay. It was a sunny fall day with temperatures in the 70s, warm in the sun. The air was tainted with some smoke from the distant forest fires but it felt clearer near the river and the air under the tree cover caressed our skin in a delicious way. We walked and paused at various spots along the river which was bubbling over rocks and in low spots held a golden carpet of leaves. Passing tall sycamores with gnarly complex roots exposed after the floods, we greeted a large group of green backed snapping turtles sunbathing peacefully on a square, flat mid-river rock.

We nodded at the “Talking Heads” rock across the river - a large rectangle with a small round stone on top, making it look like a caricature of David Byrne of the Talking Heads music group. Finding our spot out of the way of the walking path in a small clearing along the riverbank, we created a small unobtrusive medicine wheel with four found shells and a Spurling ring we had brought with us while attempting to be unobtrusive. Although we opened the directions quietly, people must have been drawn to the energy as many came right by to see what we were doing, diverging from the path and smiling. One woman asked if we were performing ceremony.
“Yes,” we replied tentatively.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!!! Can you wait a little while? My husband is really into this kind of thing and he would love to join you.”
We were both floored at this response and realized how much the world had changed.
“We will only be here a short time, but if he wants to join before we leave, sure,” we shrugged with smiles and a feeling of joy to be able to perform ceremony more openly and have it appreciated. It was heartening to know more people were sensitive to and aware of the energies.
“Oh thank you. You are both so radiant! The energy here is so good. Thank you for the work you are doing.” She hurried off phone in hand to call her husband.
We continued sending joyful energy into Gaia, Mother Earth. The joy flowing through us was lovely and Mother Earth responded with equally beautiful energy. It was an amazing feast of love and joy.
That day I went back to the office to continue my appointments. All were based on healing through joy and I was feeling quite full when the last one ended at 10 pm.

Afterwards, I left for Raleigh to join a friend to see her son’s band, The Breakfast Club, a fun 80’s cover group. The dark except for the stage theater was hopping and I was dancing in place as was most of the audience. I joined my friend, Teres, behind the waist-high wall separating us from the mosh area. This band created joy and their loyal following knows the songs and have set routines for many of the songs: Sunglasses for “I Wear My Sunglasses at Night”, hand gestures for some songs and specific dance moves for others and call outs done in unison created a community feel. “We Built this City” made a great sing along. It was a blast being in their presence.

I, of course, wore my earplugs to protect my ears and thoroughly enjoyed the crowd, made up of college students through those in their 60s - there were even a few I thought were probably in their 70s. Spontaneously a desire to dance with someone popped out of my heart. A few minutes later, a young man dressed like Mr. T tapped me on the shoulder and I laughed because he was asking me to dance. We danced with great joy! I felt ribbons of joy coming from the band and from the audience. The Breakfast Club continued their first set until well after midnight and I danced the entire time after a full day of work. I waited to talk with my friend Tony, the drummer during the break. He was all decked out in his 80’s style and then I took off for my hour drive back riding a large ribbon of joy. I chased away thoughts like the one my aunt had planted in me: too much of a good thing…and too much laughter leads to tears. After a much-needed shower, I fell into a deep sleep and the joy continued. When I woke during the night, I was dreaming of dancing with joy. Gratitude filled my heart. Yellow ribbons of joy filled the room.

Thank you and please bring me more.

Thirsting for Joy Blog