Make a Joyful Noise

Grandma's Hug

We are surrounded by negativity these days.  In my Buddhist practices adversity is understood as the means to practice. What need is there to practice patience, compassion or tolerance when all is puppies and rainbows? Just so, a good read includes villains, obstacles and difficulties.

Part of our responsibility as writers is to reveal how one can move through difficulty. How we can make a Joyful Noise even when events are difficult or even horrific. We can show how to be part of the solution rather than react to the problem. This means we share the drama of our (or our protagonist's) pain and difficulty. The Joyful Noise comes from a wisdom and strength of those of us who can be honest about our own limits and brokenness. Our writing must be written for the shipwrecked, the ones who may be lost and broken but seek wholeness.

We can help write the world into wholeness, reader by reader. We can make a Joyful Noise.

A great read comes from great writing. Great writing comes from a writing journey that is transformative for the writer first. Much like a spiritual journey of purgation, illumination and union (with God) -- a writer goes through a similar process of awakening to reality, or, some experience with reality. The reader then is given a way to process their reality, and even transform their experiences through the reading of our words.

Recall a read that guided you through a difficult time or that was a Joyful Noise. Recall a novel that spoke to you in a way that reached into your soul and transformed how you saw and experienced the world. 

Write from your soul, don't leave the dark bits out. Share your transformative experiences through your narrative and know that your stories will help heal the divide and pain, reader by reader. 

Make a Joyful Noise.    

"These are the only genuine ideas, the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric,  posturing and farce."  –Jose Ortega y Gasset 

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Mr Roger’s 10 Precepts -- 
Be Deep and Simple.
Be Kind to Strangers (even the stranger in yourself)
Make a Joyful Noise
Tell the Truth
Connect with Other People Every Way You Can
Love Your Neighbors
Find the Light in the Darkness
Always See the Ver Best in Other People
Accept the Changing Seasons
Share what You’ve Learned (All your Life). ​