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Welcome to the Theme for April, the Practice of Joy

It’s easy to get tricked, taken for a ride, convinced that joy is a possession.
Something to be caught, contained and controlled just by us.
As if it’s a birthday present, waiting for us to unwrap it and keep forever and ever.

And who can blame us, with pain seeming so powerfully prevalent, and permanent.
If sadness can stay for so long, why can’t joy?
But maybe it’s elusive for a reason.
Maybe it’s slippery in order to help us understand that it was put here to fly.
Or better yet: To be flung! To be passed, not possessed.
To be spread between you and me, between the ones who receive its gift and the ones that have been looking for its treasure for a very long time.
Maybe it’s a beautiful and elegant contagion, over which we just might have more control than we think.
If only we share it. If only we notice that joy is not ours to keep, but ours to give.
Maybe joy is a gift that opens us as much as we open to it.
Maybe that’s the way light leaks into our weary world.
Speakers for April
 
April 6- Larry Hutchinson
April 13– Alex Hamill, Charles Henry, and Bethany Snyder
April 20-Caitlin Hildebrand
April 27– Rev. Rebecca Booher