“Then a Woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.”
- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
We all want to be happy. It is baked into our consciousness as something to strive for. Life is so hard at times it’s a wonder we can ever be happy with the endless tasks and pressures weighing us down. Jobs must be worked to earn a living, errands completed to make life function, chores done to live in a civilized way, and endless lineups to get where we need to go.
And that’s just regular life as an adult.
Throw in healing from trauma and adversity and life can feel like an unending process that can’t seem to bring relief. There are a lot of dark days, dark nights. There can be the feeling like we will never get out of this.
And yet.
We hope for better. We hope for happiness. We yearn for joy. Even in the midst of our sorrow.
The difference between joy and happiness:
Happiness1
a: a state of well-being and contentment : joy
b: a pleasurable or satisfying experience
J…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to In Conscious Motion to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.