Surprised by Joy : :

"As I stood before a flowering currant bush on a summer day there suddenly arose in me without warning, and as if from a depth not of years but of centuries, the memory of that earlier morning at the Old House when my brother had brought his toy garden into the nursery. It is difficult to find words strong enough for the sensation which came over me; Milton's 'enormous bliss' of Eden (giving the full, ancient meaning to 'enormous') comes somewhere near it. It was a sensation of course, of desire; but desire for what? not, certainly, for a biscuit tin filled with moss, nor even (though that came into it) for my own past.....and before I knew what I desired, the desire itself was gone, the whole glimpse withdrawn, the world turned commonplace again, or only stirred by a longing for the longing that had just ceased. It had taken only a moment of time; and in a certain sense everything else that had ever happened to me was insignificant in comparison." (C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p. 16).

Comments

[timbur]

A longing for not just what is ahead or right now, but also the joy-moments we have taken in and lived. Joy, I'm re-learning what it means. I used to think it meant:
J-Jesus
O-Others
Y-Yourself
Live like that and you will experience joy, I was taught. Whatever!? Hmm? I like being present to the longing CS Lewis describes. Joy, unforced rythyms of grace... peace

[Christi Benson]

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