accessing the capacity for joy
A recent exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum, Joshua Neustein: Margins drew on the work of Edmond Jabes to engage in ‘a poetic, visual reflection on writing, religion and archaeology’.
Jabes speaks often of what happens beyond the text, that which exists in the margins beyond the margins. . .
Continue reading “More words, margins and the journey to silence”
It fascinates me that ‘the Word’ has such significance in many of the world’s great faiths.
It seems to me that ‘joy’ is a word that has become unfashionable and, perhaps, lost meaning for the modern age. My aim is to explore the meaning of joy, the ways in which we can develop a capacity to tap into joy, and the qualities of being that contribute to this capacity.
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Footnote: since this was written in 2010, it seems as if a conversation about joy has erupted – so wonderful!
(See also Why Passage to Joy?)
For most of my life, the words ‘corporate’ and ‘soul‘ have seemed light years apart. How wonderful, then, to happen on the beginnings of a movement to put soul at the heart of corporate life.
The article that underpins this movement cites research indicating that
only 20% of employees are truly engaged “heart and soul” in their work.
and
blames the almighty corporate mission, vision and goals that lack “cosmic good” and drain the life blood from the heart and soul.
The fact of language is one more thing that divides him from nature. But, he finds that if he doesn’t record the days, he has nothing to keep them apart. They blur into each other, a mass of green and gray, and he loses not only them but himself. (Alison Pick in ‘The Sweet Edge’)
This set me thinking. I have often felt the urge to learn ‘the speaking of silence’. Words sometimes seem to fill the spaces to bursting, getting in the way of real meaning. Despite a life-long love-affair with words, I have always retained some uncertainty as to their fundamental value.
Yet without words, what happens to memory?
Continue reading “Language, meaning and our internal story-teller”