This I have learned

This I have learned over the years; a central “Principle of Awareness” within the human experience is this quiet truth: you will never have all you want. Not because you're ungrateful or lacking, but because you are designed for expansion. You dream beyond the horizon.

As one longing is fulfilled, another forms, sometimes before you’ve even celebrated the first. Desire is not a flaw in the system; it is the system. It's how we grow, evolve, and reach toward the next shimmering thread in the fabric of our becoming. Wanting more is not greed, it’s how hope speaks.

As we age, the trick is not to numb your wanting or pretend you're done yearning. The trick is to find joy anyway,to recognize the miracle of wanting and still dance in the not-yet.

In these turbulent times we need to find and defend joy. The first and most brilliant Principle of Joy is can you smile while becoming?

To defend joy, then, is a kind of sacred rebellion. You must defend it not because it is weak, but because it is priceless.

Defend joy as a certainty, not as a fleeting reward.
Defend it from corruption, from the slow corrosion of waiting too long.
From smut, from the vulgar exploitation of feelings.
From the famous patina of time, that tells you wonder only belongs to the young.
From dew, from the illusion that joy is too delicate for a weathered heart.
From pimps of laughter, who sell spectacle but never deliver soul.

Defend joy as a right.
Not the right to always feel happy, but the right to feel whole.
To seek light even when the world spins in shadow.
To greet the morning with cracked hands and say, Still, I rise joyful.

And when you truly claim joy, not as outcome but as origin,
You won’t have to explain it.
People will see it in the way you move,
The way you listen,
The way you keep choosing to love this unfinished life.

Defining Joy

Joy is not the end of wanting,
But the breath you take in between.
Not the trophy on the mountain,
But the hush behind the dream.

It wears no armor, but it holds,
Through soot, time, and wear.
Joy sings in rain, it hums in cracks,
It thrives on tender care.

So, nail it to your soul,
Let no one take its spark
And walk as though your very steps
Are lighting up the dark.