There is a joy that leaves no trace of harm. No wounded heart behind it.

No silence broken to serve it. It asks nothing, takes nothing, and yet blesses everything it touches. But there’s another kind — a joy that comes at the expense of another’s pain. That’s not joy, beloved.

It’s only the costume joy wears when it forgets who it is. A flicker pretending to be flame.

True joy doesn’t borrow. It arrives as a gift — whole, radiant, and already complete.

It’s not mine or yours, not earned or withheld. It belongs to Life itself.

And when it moves through you,

you remember what cannot be taken, only shared.

Nigel Lott teaandzen.org