I am reading When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening by Jan Frazier.
As Natalie said, "I like the idea of sudden". Yes, so appealing to think you can ask for fear to leave you and POOF!, it's gone. For good. That's her experience. And, she is a writer so the writing is delicious.
Laughter and tears are the clothing joy can dress in to show itself to the world. That urge I have to ask strangers if they know how lucky they are to be alive, and the urge to randomly shriek for joy-well, that is the picture of insanity. I can't behave that way, for all my impulse to. I have to behave like a mother to my children. I get giddy with them a lot, and they probably wonder what is going on. It's like there are spigots my joy comes through, ways it can flow out that are socially acceptable: there's laughing and crying, there's riding my bike and singing, and there's passion of the body. Writing, of course, does the job. There's also riding the Superman roller coasters. It's a physical outlet for bliss, even though (unlike biking and erotic passion) there's no exertion on my part. When I ride the Superman, it's like I'm giving myself over into the arms of the world.
All of these things are good outlets for joy. Not that the outward flow diminishes the storehouse. Joy seems to be the perpetually renewable resource.
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