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Poetry in Black and White

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Poetry in Black and White

Tag Archives: joy

Now

11 Monday Dec 2017

Posted by Michael Ray King in Poetry

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

happiness is a choice, joy, joy is a choice, now, Power of now

A case for Joy

Joy – the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation

The definition of joy implies action. “The emotion of great delight (not just regular delight) CAUSED by something exceptionally good or satisfying.” At my age, I’ve heard many times over the advice that one must “choose” happiness. The classic example of this is The Diary of Ann Frank. If anyone had reason to be despondent, she would lead a large pack. Happiness, a component of joy, is a choice.

Happiness gets trampled daily if you’ve not noticed. Our politics. Our religions. Our media. Our gossip. The overwhelming collectivity of communication sometimes appears negative beyond repair. How does one choose happiness when they’re surrounded by all these externals of negativity? On top of the macro of negativity, what about the micro? For instance, what if someone is constantly bombarded by negative statements, attacks, and skullduggery? How does one rise above this?

By choice, it would appear. Life gets tiresome when all that’s in front of you looms as potential dismay, sadness, anger, betrayal, cruelty, and a host of other negative players. Many, if not most, people look to find happiness in the very people who will eventually destroy that joy. Wise folk have said for millennia to look inward for happiness and joy with the oft-unspoken advice that others will not do it for you in the long run. For those who get to this point, often the trek stands out as a painful, arduous arrival to a place we should have acknowledged long ago.

I’m still not at the point where I walk away like Kwai Chang Caine from television show Kung Fu. I can do this physically, but mentally and emotionally I fight the battle in my head and my heart. I recognize this robs me of peace. I recognize I must find a way to suffer the slings and arrows of people who know me and those who don’t. The pickle is in the doing. When people load their shit on you, making the choice of joy becomes Mt. Everest with few provisions. Most often, we’re so bombarded by the negativity that we don’t recognize we’re leagues away from joy before we even deal with someone nasty.

The only tool which comes to mind to battle this onslaught is “now.” The power of being in the moment. The power of slipping out of our daydream (or nightmare as the case may be) and into the moment of truth. The bare, unadorned moment. As Eckhart Tolle said, “The Power of Now.” To get to now, I’ve discovered I must step out of everything and focus on something. At this moment its the sunshine outside my window. Or is it the green leaves on the palm fronds? Or is it the blue sky backdrop? None of these matter except that they each offer a way out of the mind-numbing war which rages in my head and heart. The fears which rise up. The anger that can simmer low enough to be nearly undetectable and high enough to boil over given the right (or wrong) conditions.

“Now” can be the lampshade. Something inanimate. Something to draw attention from my inner turmoils and out to a place where I can replace in my mind something better. How often do I practice this? Not often enough I can say with absolute certainty. Just stepping out of turmoil does not bring me to joy. In fact, the act does not necessarily get me out of negativity. Residual thoughts keep knocking at my “now” door, looking for a way in to kill the momentum. I’ve found that negativity thrives on itself. When negativity meets something positive, engulf and devour like a rabid wolf ensues.

I must find a way to fill my “now” moment with something of positive value. Positive thoughts. Goals. Dreams. Aspirations. Yes, as I’m writing this, I’m allowing myself to entertain the thought of being holed up in a mountain cottage, fire in the fireplace, hot chocolate by my recliner, laptop in my lap with snow swirling outside my huge bay window in a dance of pure peace and joy. I feel two things going here. One is excitement. Excitement that I may actually one day do this. I also feel the dogged attacks of negativity screaming I am saddled by life and circumstance and that I’ll never have the time nor the finances to achieve such a thing.

This is where more of us lose it. I’m leading that pack, unfortunately. I’ve come to realize just getting to the dream will not allow me to maintain joy. An action is required. A plan. Actual movement in the direction of achieving the goal. Something to work for. Something to believe in. Something to help me maintain an inner peace and joy in my “now.”

Connecting the dots internally will now be my focus. I’ve got to learn to choose happiness, happiness within me. Happiness within my life. Happiness within my reach. All captured in the moment of “now.” Maintaining this will be the challenge. This is contrary to a life pattern of constantly fighting back negativity. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my crazy ex-wife, confronting negativity only drags me into the cesspool. Walking away, as Kwai Chang, truly becomes the only effective route.

The next step is to not only achieve now moments but to put into play and into thought and into practice that each task I accomplish each day brings me one step closer to my dreams and aspirations. When I look at completing a project as a “now moment(s)” action step to my dreams and aspirations, joy may become a component of my working day. I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Good work.

“NOW” work.

Practice. Practice. Practice….

Now

Now
look at your hand
do it
ask yourself why
why is he requesting I look at my hand
what were you thinking about before you looked
do you feel a distance from those thoughts
even if only a small distance

Now
our heads stay stuffed with thoughts
thoughts triggered and placed by others
thoughts triggered and placed by ourselves
the monkey chatter in our heads drowns out most everything else
until we take action
until we give ourselves an option
escape from unreality

Now
look at your hand
your hand is real
your thoughts, all 60,000 of them per day
all 42 thoughts per minute
almost one thought per second
call you back to their cacophony
a siren call we live with every day

Now
look at your hand
seize the second
seize the minute
reign in your thoughts and focus
speed holds not your answer
relaxation
deep breaths
consciousness beyond the noise of our minds
our distractions
our technologies

NOW
look at your hand
look out your window
look at your sky
feel who you are
feel who you aspire to be
make the choice of joy
make the choice to put action to “you”
NOW

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Day Starter…

13 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by Michael Ray King in Poetry

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Tags

joy, love, relationship

The press of your lips on mine
Delivers heaven to my soul
Yet the sensation springs from my heart
Not our touch…

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Everything We Need for Joy

06 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by Michael Ray King in Poetry

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

eyes, joy, lips, tender embrace

a-kissEverything We Need for Joy

How could the day not shimmer in excitement
How could the stars not twinkle with delight
How could evening shadows not caress the soul
When our lips meet in soft, silent splendor.

How could rain not giggle on rooftops
How could snow not repaint the world in equality
How could the very sun not welcome warmth into the heart
When our eyes greet each other in love.

How could a meadowlark not regale the world in song
How could a child’s laughter not tickle a smile to the lips
How could a breath be so deliciously stolen
When we fall into each others arms in tender embrace

How could we think of one another and not smile
How could we see each other without longing
How could we touch without passion rippling our bodies
Hand in hand we greet life with everything we need for joy…

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Waking From Our Dreams of Hell…

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by Michael Ray King in Poetry

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

agreement, enlightenment, hell, joy

In the book “The Four Agreements” Don Miguel Ruiz writes about how we live our lives inside ourselves in various hells. He notes how we possess control over these hells, even to the point of creating our own internal ‘heavens.’ To capture the underlying premises of the Toltec wisdom he draws upon, you truly need to read this book.

My “in-a-nutshell” take on this delivers the perspective that rather than externalizing our lives and making other people responsible for our joys, we should internalize our search for peace and happiness. This is no new concept. Many decry this type of introspection to build a rewarding and fulfilled life. I enjoy the concept of four “agreements” each person makes within themselves with life.

I do not wish to digress from the “hells” aspect however. Once you read through the first three agreements, “Be impeccable with your word,” “Don’t take anything personally,” and “Don’t make assumptions,” you begin to understand how to regain your life and vitality.

There stand ready many who would steal your life and energy from you. The sad aspect to this truth becomes the fact that we actually allow others to pilfer our lives. We surrender ourselves to their manifestations of control, most often unpleasant, when all the while embodied with the strength to simply say no.

The most apparent and appalling truth this book delivers? We relegate our own selves into most of our hells. Not others. Us. Me. You.

While this fact distresses, it should also inspire. If we place ourselves in our own hells in this life, all we need do is learn how to alter that reality. This takes commitment. Work. Understanding. Education. A willingness to look deep and true into oneself. Undertaking this endeavor will require more than a ‘once-over’ style effort.

The reward? Your life. Back in your hands. Joy. Avoidance of the predicaments that torture us. A fighting chance at happiness. Joy. Confidence.

hellWaking From Our Dreams of Hell…

Soldiers we fall, strewn across the bloody fields of life
Dismembered. Forgotten. Reanimated.
Hell stands perpetual. Constant. Thrumming like fire-drops of rain.
Battered, we each rise again to seek our next step…

Bleak, blackened, sightlessness of eternal night,
We stumble across each other,
Dragging comrades into our own versions of hell
Often unknowing. Often uncaring. Often.

Yet life proffers gleaming truths.
Lights to ferry our souls from blindness.
Emancipations from self-inflicted dooms.
A way out of the madness of our minds.

Enlightenment manifests from pursuit, not laziness.
Joy and fulfillment from surrender, not aggression.
Personal responsibility as a road map, not an afterthought.
Impeccably striving to do our best, not get by…

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When I Think of You…

01 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Michael Ray King in Poetry

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

joy, love, NaPoWriMo, peace, smile

Today is a special day. No, not because it’s April Fools Day, but because this day begins National Poetry Writing Month. There’s a challenge out there to write a poem a day. The site is: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/napowrimo/

I’ve decided to take on the writing gauntlet. We’ll see if I can knock one out each day. I’m in the mood. Nothing like a challenge to get your poetry spirits soaring! The site gives you prompts that you may use or ignore. I tend to write poetry more off what’s in my heart. If I see a prompt that strikes me, I’ll most definitely use it. For today, though, I just simply wrote:

When I Think of You…

When I think of you,
I smile, even
though life may clutter existence
like a leaf-clogged gutter,
causing spirits to plummet and demons to soar
through a mind and heart besieged by
relentless questions, criticisms, accusations and negativity
only to all fall away like a morning mist relinquishing itself to the day,
so joy and peace may step into life and
nestle ever-so-soft in a loving heart that
desires little more than the
beauty and serenity of companionship …
… and love

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When Sunshine Turns to Cloister Rain

01 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by Michael Ray King in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cloister, joy, life, rain, sushine

One thing I’ve noticed
We walk life asleep
We hide from the sun
Cloister our feet.

Days beckon us outward
Fresh and inviting
Our minds know better
No work declining

One day we’ll awaken
Glimpse what we missed
Wish for our time back
Wish to be kissed

We’ll tumble to oblivion
Mired in regret
So get to your feet
Never forget

When sunshine calls
Don’t rain the parade
Step into your life
Out of charade…

Last Words…

Sometimes the rhyming bug strikes me, for good or for ill. I keep glancing out my windows at the beautiful day calling me to play. Responsibilities and work and this and that all appear to rain down on me as I sit here. But I shall take my advice and get outside. I suggest you do the same!!! 🙂

No time to edit. Gotta catch a piece of this day!!!!!!

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