Joy out of simplicity

Life has been pretty simple for me nowadays. I am still working in my current workplace until the end of November this year. That means I am jobless after that. With my remaining time here, I am enjoying myself with most of my colleagues by getting to know them more. I also enjoy my time with my supervisor as she is the first nice supervisor I have since my first job. With my free time, I am playing with my nephew most of the time. If not, I will be writing online or catching up with my reading. Sometimes, I do find some time catching up with friends. I should say that I am pretty much on my own nowadays. At least, I have peace without much complication in my life.


During this period of solitude in a way, I enjoy the simplicity of life. Being simple can be such a joy. On some Saturdays, I would wake up late and get some breakfast from the coffeeshop near my house. The sight of people enjoying food and time with one another can be such a joy filled deep within me. On last Saturday, I was at my sister’s house. I have never known that it was such a joy to sit down quietly and simply enjoy watching my nephew how responsible he was as a two year old toddler to keep his toys one by one into the designated place. Joy can be as simple as that.

It comes to my mind about the parable about Martha and Mary where Mary was listening quietly to Jesus while Martha was busy with all her tasks and did not manage to enjoy her time with Jesus around. Jesus replied Martha that Mary had done the right thing by sitting down and spending her time listening to him while Martha was too busy with her own tasks and worried too much. I am like Martha most of the time. Even if I do not move physically, my mind is always so busy. It was worse in the past that I was so busy with work and friends that I could not even spend time with God and my loved ones at all. I guess God has His way with me. I have been looking for jobs with the nature of having to work late into nights or even during weekends. So far, I have failed all those interviews.

My life has slowed down alot now that I am less involved in church. It’s healthy to slow down once in awhile. At least, I have quality time with my family and friends and for myself. In this hectic modern world where most of us are working hard for our careers and everything from everywhere is trying to grasp our attention, have we forgotten to quiet ourselves down like Mary to spend time with God and our loved ones? When is the last time I have spent time with God before the Blessed Sacrament? When is the last time I have participated in the mass?

How about my loved ones and family? Do I spend quality time with them? From my facebook, I can see my friends posting photos of times spent with their children and families. Certain moments once lost are lost forever such as the development of the children. From my nephew, it is a real joy to see him learning how to talk, how his face changes, how he has learnt from crawling to walking, etc. Imagine if, as parents, you have missed all these growing stages of your children, can you reverse the time? Can the money that you have earned or the status that you have attained buy the time back to see your children growing? For couples in marriage or relationships, how much quality time is spent with your partners? How much time is spent to understand and communicate with each other at a deeper level? Is there any time to resolve the issues between you? How much time have you spent in enjoying the presence of each other as a gift in each other’s life? In family, do we spend time with our parents? They are not going to live forever. Do we fulfil our duties as children and spend time with them while we still can? How about friends? Do we spend time with them and find out what is going on with their life? Do we show care and concern to these loved ones and friends in our lives? Sometimes, we may be pretty guilty of neglecting these people who are close to us in our lives while we are busy in church or workplace or even in our hobbies. Even if I am meeting my friends or loved ones, do I really enjoy their presence or am I busy with my smses, facebook or doing something or chatting online with my laptops, handphones or some other IT gadgets? Is that really quality time spent with them? Or is it just one of the tasks to be done among other? Such scene can also be seen in the church where some people are busy with their smses on the phones. How can one truly enjoy the presence of Jesus when he/she is preoccupied with some other things at the same time? Imagine you have specially arranged a candle-lit dinner in your favourite restaurant to celebrate your wedding anniversary with your spouse or the birthday of your girlfriend/boyfriend with him/her. You are telling him/her how much you love him/her while he/she is busy playing games or chatting online with his/her friends. How do you feel? Do you feel like you are just another piece of furniture in that restaurant? Do you feel the love in the relationship? Will you suspect that he/she may listen part of your message or not even listening it at all? Will it lead to misunderstanding due to inattentive to the communication? Is the love between you even shared during that moment? Then, next time if you are with your loved ones and friends and even with God, will you still do that? I admit I am pretty guilty of that as my loved ones have been complaining at times that they do not have clue if I even care for them as I am always so distracted or busy. I had even paid a high price that I seldom expressed my care for a loved one even until she died. This is the regret which I have to live with for the rest of my life where time can never be reversed for me to care for her ever again.

It is not about doing big things that I may bring love to others. It is all about doing small little things for others so that I may share God’s Love with the others. Even a smile from a person can brighten up another person’s day. I remember I was very touched by my ex-colleague’s simple act. It touches me even till now. I felt God’s love out of that very small act. I like Tiramisu alot. During my last few days of work in my first job, my ex-colleague knew that I like Tiramisu alot. Her sister could make very good Tiramisu and had been finding ways to improve making Tiramisu but she was down with sickness. She had asked her sister to make Tiramisu for me and her sister who had never seen me before agreed to make two for me despite her sickness. I tried her Tiramisu. I should say that was heaven on earth. Till now, I have never tasted any better Tiramisu since then. I was very touched by the efforts and time from her in making the Tiramisu. Well, I have never seen her before. But, I really thank her from the bottom of my heart. Even a stranger could touch me deep within by her act of making my favourite dessert. That joy that this stranger had filled me deep within can never be described with words. I believe that was God ‘s love to me from this stranger.

When I am getting greedy, wanting more than I need according to God’s will, I become blinded by such greed, such as wanting more and more money for myself, wanting to climb up the corporate ladder in the corporate world even if it means to hurt others, gaining popularity to myself while smearing or tarnishing other people’s reputation, snatching other people’s spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend for me to possess the person, etc. I begin to place myself above others and God, becoming more and more prideful. I become harsh on others, especially when they do not measure up to my standard, leaving no room for compassion towards them. People become tools for me to possess in fulfilling my gratification and wants. My life becomes more complex with so many unnecessary wants cluttering my life and set all my priorities wrong. I become so distracted that I can never slow down to admire what God has created for me to enjoy. How can I possibly admire the nature, the beauty of sunrise and sunset, and appreciate other people as parts of the body of Christ with their unique personalities and talents while having so much distractions vying for my attention? My focus will become more and more on me. How can I even listen to God’s voice when all I can hear is about what I want with my own voice? What happens if I don’t get my way? I may start blaming God, other people and even myself.

Joy can be enjoyed best out of simplicity. God knows what I need the most. All other wants which I may not even need in my life are distractions to draw me away from God and may make me more and more self centered and blind. When I enjoy simplicity as simple as slowing down to enjoy the nature, I allow myself to dwell deeper into the beauty of God through His creation and learn to appreciate life as a gift at a deeper level. When I allow myself to spend quality time with people, taking time to understand them better and reconciling with them if needed and enjoying their very presence, I also learn to see and experience Christ in them. I allow myself time to be spent with God through His creation where God is truly everywhere. God is very simple. He is Love. Sometimes, I realize that some of us may be so well versed on some theories that we may get lost in the small details and theories that we may forget God is just as simple as Love. In this case, our intellect hinders us from truly appreciating God’s mystery of Love which can never be fathomed by the rational minds no matter how brilliant our human minds may be.

Basically, it is just as simple as opening myself to experience life to the fullest with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, surrendering my life to God gradually and throwing myself into the sea of the mystery of God. Simple and yet difficult at the same time as it takes a lot of courage to overcome my fears and obstacles deep within and faith of a mustard seed for me to trust that everything is in the hands of God. The more I surrender myself to God, the simpler I am, the more I can experience joy out of God’s Love for me without being blinded by my unnecessary wants or distractions from the world, the closer I am walking towards holiness. In order to do that, I must learn to slow myself down from time to time and set quiet time aside with God to allow His Love to tenderize me deep within and give thanks to the gifts that He has been blessing me with through His creation and people and the fact that I am still living so that I can appreciate the beauty of simplicity with deep joy which can never be attained from the worldly values.

Take some time to imagine if you were to die tomorrow. Can you bring your fame, status, wealth and material wants with you when you die? What are the regrets that you may have in life where you have not cared or done enough or words not said or feelings not expressed towards anyone? These regrets are the very areas that may fill you deep with joy if they are done, expressed, or said. I must never also take for granted that the people in my life will live forever. Life is fragile and unpredictable and I will never know who will leave me next. Will I have regrets if he/she leaves me suddenly? If I may have regrets towards that person, time to do something about it before I live in regrets where no amount of tears can erase such regrets. When all these things or words undone or unsaid or unexpressed are done or said or expressed out of Love to these people, we are truly living in joy out of Love with the others.

With Love,

Elena