Alice Walker had this to say about being happy:
״Don't wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you've got to make yourself.״
Walker’s words wink at today’s psalm as we examine the art of cultivating happiness - not always an easy task, especially these days.
Poets, healers and mystics help us make sense of emotions and how to help happiness and joy show up - as creatively and as often as possible.
Psalm 100 is only five verses in all but it’s quite well known and often quoted. It’s part of the Friday night liturgy in Sefardic congregations and also included in the weekday morning prayers. It’s probably also so popular because it lifts up the important role of happiness in cultivating a healthy life.
עִבְד֣וּ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֣ה בְּשִׂמְחָ֑ה בֹּ֥אוּ לְ֝פָנָ֗יו בִּרְנָנָֽה׃
worship GOD with happiness
Enter the divine presence with songs of joy.
Ps. 100:2
The psalm is talking about the religious life but we can extend the idea further. Must we always show up happy??
How do you worship with happiness, anyway? Always?
Isn’t grief and serious somber sorrow also a helpful way to access the sacred space of the divine within?
What happens when you’re not happy for whatever reason but still showing up for spiritual or social opportunities of any sort?
Many have pondered this verse and its ramifications. And many continue to study happiness.
There are also many musical compositions that include this verse as a cheerful prayer.
One of the wise men to delve deeper into the meaning of joy when it’s more oy on our minds was the 18th century Rabbi Nachman of Breslov who became one of the important voices of the Hasidic movement.
As illustrated in Arthur Green’s epic book Tormented Master, Reb Nachman famously wrestled with his own demons, doubts and mood disorders.
In this passage from Likutei Moharan, the book attributed to his oral teachings he wrestles with what happens when happiness is wanted - but not so easy to access:
“An analogy: Sometimes, when people are happy and dance, they grab someone standing outside the circle who is depressed and gloomy. Against that person's will they bring them into the circle of dancers; against their will, they force them to be happy along with them.
It is the same with happiness. When a person is happy, gloom and suffering stand aside.
Yet greater still is to gather courage to actually pursue gloom, and to introduce it into the joy, such that the gloom itself turns into joy. A person should transform gloom and all suffering into joy. It is like a person who comes to a celebration. The abundant joy and happiness then, transforms all their worries, depression and gloom into joy. We find that they have grabbed the gloom and introduced it, against its will, into the joy, as in the aforementioned analogy.”
I’m not sure how helpful Reb Nachman’s analogy is - I usually hate it when I’m not in the mood for a Hora but someone insists I join the circle… But I also get it and at times appreciate the nudge to get out of my head. We sometimes need help to overcome our anti-happy and that can take the form of many modes such as medicine, music, gestures and gifts. It’s also OK to say no and choose not to join the circle - until we are ready to do so.
However we enable our own feelings to surface, and make space for those of others, we get to dance the full dance of life. Whether we let others drag us into the circle of joy or make the choice ourselves, as Walker suggests -- whenever we’re ready -- hopefully glimmers of happiness find us and help us be as present as possible, showing up fully to whatever comes our way.
Smiles never hurt either.
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