In complete truth, this is a post I have been wanting to write for ages.

The first spark appeared a couple years ago when I realized… my joy felt different than it did just a few months prior. Still very much there, but it was changed.

It wasn’t so much that high-vibe and endless energy joy I had grown accustomed to after the healing I did in 2020/2021 following my rock bottom moment.

A more peaceful joy seemed to be settling in. A feeling of just general ease.

At first, I felt as though perhaps something was wrong. Where was that boundless sense of spirit? Wasn’t that joy for me? Did I need to do something to boost me back to that feeling of flying high? Don’t get me wrong, the quieter/subtler joy was nice. It felt content, but it felt a bit drastic in terms of the energy behind it from the elevated and buoyant joy of before.

It occurred to me though, both things can be true.

Joy can be vibrant and lively. It can also be blissful and harmonious.

When I went to my intuition to hear what it had to say on the matter, here’s what came forth.

Joy can take many forms.

This or that.

Here or there.

In between.

What we’re trying to say is, there’s no right way to joy.

As there’s no wrong way to joy.

Joy just is whatever you please.

Highest expression of the world to + through you.

There’s many shades.

Take a masterpiece—Claire loves Monet’s waterlilies—those masterpieces are such because of their dimension contained within them.

There gets to be the final product because there was variety.

The differences—if you want to call them that—make the masterpiece.

Don’t you see—it’s the differences which make the beauty?

What would Monet’s waterlilies be without the variety of colors, shapes, and sizes?

It would be a piece of parchment.

Please know this, this is how we view joy. How we hope you do, too.

Joy is multifaceted.

Many different dimensions, tones, shades.

Joyful can be immense gratitude, we see a shade of orange-brown here, but it could also be bountiful happiness, a golden sunshine color.

That little feeling of joy felt in grief when you realize life is infinite? A ethereal soft peach.

The wonder, like of your childhood, when you’re amazed by something? A fresh-cut grass green.

You need the contrast in color to fully see the finished product.

This masterpiece called your life.

So, pretty-please, stop and see the shades of joy you’re painting throughout your day.

You may just be starting a painting worthy of a museum gallery.

Photo Credit:  Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash