Easy! When what I must do is “easy,” life seems easy. However, some things are hard to do and, also, necessary. It is often hard (especially for SJs) to learn new ways, new methods, new concepts, new skills. We tend to retreat from “change” of just about any sort, but I have learned that it brings joy to progress from the “new” stage to the “easy” stage. Have you ever noticed that everything is easy — when you know how?
Being a senior citizen in this age of high tech is daunting. Even preschoolers can do things on a computer that I can’t seem to do, but “it’s easy when you know how.” I must remember that. Everyone has to begin somewhere, and beginning is the hard part. You must begin so that you can progress to easy.
What have you wanted to do that you have never done because it was hard? Did you want to learn to play a musical instrument? What about develop your creativity through graphic arts of some sort - oil painting, watercolor, etc? Have you wanted to learn how to ride a horse? Garden? Use a bow and arrows? Do ceramics? Learn another language?
How much joy would it give you to find that what you have longed to do is “easy”?
One Christmas past, at the request of my daughter, I created Christmas stockings for two little girls who she hoped to adopt as her own. Nothing would have pleased me more than to fulfill that request for my own daughter.
I know how to sew, but I had no pattern, no instructions, and wanted to created something unique for these very special little ones whose lives got off to a rough start. I’m no artist, but I began. I was pleased with the outcome. However, had I not begun, there would have been no pleasure, no joy of accomplishment. Because I tried and persevered through the task — planning the design, selecting the materials, figuring out each step as needed — I experienced the joy of granting my daughter’s request and the joy of giving to these precious children. When the job was done, I found that it had, after all, been “easy.”
Sometimes “easy” just requires the motivation to follow through. The result is joy!
