After some very traumatic yet fascinating experiences–I am learning so much–my goal is to regain joy. Not always an easy thing to do when you’ve been bathed in fear and grief. But somewhere underneath the weeds is the flower!

Emma Lou, our reincarnated basset hound, represents joy to me. She can’t wait to wake up in the morning and play with her toy basket, knock over each toy, explore shoes, and chase her sister around. After being in pain for the past week, I, on the otherhand, have dreaded mornings, but Emma is teaching me otherwise. You would think her day would be boring, but she is the epitomy of simplicity. And it is the simple things that give her the most joy. She loves the sun on her belly, a piece of string gives her moments of fun (I’d say hours but we are talking puppy here), and whenever she sees one of her sisters, she eggs them on to play. We had this “skill”as children, I am sure. How did many of us lose this?

When I was writing and compiling my book, The Fairy Field Guide, the Fairies and Nature Spirits had a continuous message–to bring in joy. Joy was the key to abundance, to happiness, to health. My greatest challenge has been holding on to joy in the midst of deep sadness, disappointment and even, loss of hope. I am finding that my essential nature and soul IS joyous–it’s my natural state, so I am like one big rubber band–always bouncing back to finding that joyful place.

I watched an Academy Award-winning movie on DVD yesterday, Cold Mountain. What the characters endured was the complete opposite of joy, and yet by the end of the movie, they are seen enjoying life and its bounty full-heartedly. I was amazed. After everything they had experienced, wouldn’t you have been broken, shut down from life? Perhaps by feeling the worst of this world they had a greater appreciation for what is joyful and bright. Perhaps they held onto the tiny bit of joy that was hidden in the dark? As an empath and a sensitive, it is all too easy to get lost in the dark and what I feel around me. Maybe the solution is to pull out that joy and that light–the flower– that is hidden in the dark.