A Joyful Mind

Without me being aware, I have put myself under an indictment that says to me, "Since the hard parts of the first two-thirds of your life have been the result of you not taking good care of yourself, you must make sure you don't make that mistake again and you must take good care of yourself for the last third of your life." All would be well and good with that resolve if it hadn't morphed into a subtle pressure that said, "You now must make sure your future is better than your past in order to prove you are taking good care of yourself." My heart exposed this slightly askew truth when she leapt for joy when reading, "A joyful mind is when your mind does not need the future to be better than the past" (Rohr).

I pay attention when my heart "leaps for joy." She is saying, "This is the way - walk ye in it!" My heart is a good compass - she is right - I don't need to make sure my future is better than my past in order to prove I can take care of Robin! If my future is not better than my past, it will not be an indictment that I did not learn to take good care of the gift that Robin is. Life is more complex than that.