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Maybe What We Need Is Comfort And Joy

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Maybe What We Need Is Comfort and Joy

During this season, find comfort and give joy to others.

Maybe what we need today is comfort.  But we also need joy.  Every day we need to find a small miracle to give us joy.   Theologian Karl Rahner was once asked if he believed in miracles.  “I don’t believe in them,” he answered, “I rely on them to get through each day!”

From Newtown, Connecticut comes great sadness, and yet some of you reading this deal with your own sorrows today.  Sorrow during this season often seems harder, because we are supposed to be joyful.  And many of us have memories of a particular joy we experienced during this season.  Even though the ground hardens and things die, we think of bright snowfalls and being with family.  We remember that celebrations were created long ago by humans wanting to bring warmth and happiness to a cold earth.

So how can we cope, if sorrow is part of life today?  Melanie Greenberg writes ” … love and grief are intertwined; we can’t have one without the other. ..holding onto the good memories & joyful moments, grieving for what was and what wasn’t and what could never be.”  Thinking of what happened in Newtown makes us grieve for a different time, a safer time.  But we must still believe in our future and find comfort in the love we have for those in our lives–a partner, a child, a close friend, even a loving pet.

In a recent interview, Elie Wiesel, writer, educator and Holocaust survivor, provided me with comforting words which I wanted to share:

For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile.

Somebody had asked me, “What is the most important commandment in the Bible?” and I said, “Thou shalt not stand idly by.” The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Indifference is what allows evil to be strong, what gives it power.

I have no answer for anything, really, only questions… I have no doubt that questions have their own magic, their own charm and their own immortality. I have no doubt that faith is only pure when it does not negate the faith of another.

So today I wish you the comfort of a smile, a warm hug, a soothing melody, or even a warm drink in a quiet place.  I also wish you joy–from the handshake of a stranger, because of a child’s infectious laughter or a text, call or email from an old friend.

Didn’t experience any of the above???  Then you be the giver, the joy-creator–reach out to someone.  It doesn’t take much.  It will bring them comfort; and it just might bring you joy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

photo by: arquera
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