My long-time blog friend Alethea over at Not Tomatoes has nominated me for the 3.2.1 Me Challenge, and she has given me the word “joy” to write about. My response to her was, “My little “joy” keeps me busy, but I will write up a post soon!”

Thinking about bringing my little Bundle of Joy into the world almost a year ago fills my heart with joy, but the process of bringing her into the world was an unusually very long, miserable, and painful process. And yet it is exactly that very contrast of emotions and experiences that allows us to feel either and both ends of the pendulum more intimately and intensely.

As I began to look for the two quotes required for this blog challenge, I immediately came across the deep understanding of the necessity of contrast in order to fully understand each side of an emotional spectrum. Both of the following quotes are by Carl Jung from his Red Book, and both in his dream discussions with the devil or The Red One:

It is always a risky thing to accept joy, but it leads us to life and its disappointment, from which the wholeness of our life becomes.

I: “Perhaps too there is a joy before God that one can call dancing. But I haven’t yet found this joy. I look out for things that are yet to come. Things came, but joy was not among them.”

T. R.: “Don’t you recognize me, brother, I am joy!”

Synchronistically, this blog challenge came to me after a weekend of working on my online meditation and journaling course that goes along with my Guidance Cards and Companion Journal, The Fine Lines: 44 Meditations for Intentional Living. I had completed all the definitions and some of the prompts, so the concept of Joy was very fresh in my mind, specifically the fine line between Joy and Pleasure.

Joy: An emotion of great delight or happiness; a glad feeling.

Pleasure: A state of being pleased by something external; sensual gratification.

Experiencing and understanding contrasts, especially contrasting emotions, such as joy and misery, both teaches us about the two sides of the coin and heightens our awareness of them. And yet, our understanding and awareness can be further enhanced by looking at two similar, but oh-so-different emotions, such as joy versus pleasure. Though the “feeling” may seem the same, Joy comes from within the heart; pleasure through things outside of our being.

As so, I hope this post leaves you joyously pondering upon the concepts of contrasts and fine lines.

As part of this challenge I am to pick a word for 3 other bloggers to post about, and so I choose the word Ponder: Rarasaur, Litebeing, and Jessica Davidson.

Please write a post about Ponder, and including two quotes on the subject, and nominate three other bloggers to blog about a word of your choosing.