The Protection of Joy

There comes a moment in time where in order to retain your joy, life requires you to assert your boundaries. In order to steward over your spirit efficiently, you must define your energetic circumference and secure its perimeters. It's easy for us to talk about the state of joy, but let's dive into the cost of it. The relationships you have to sever, the opportunities you have to reject, the invitations you have to decline, the access you have to deny, the thoughts you have to toss, the belief systems you have to undo, the trust you had to sever, the generational curses you have to kill, the old habits you have to slay, the decisions you have to make- all to maintain your peace, spirit and delight. The thing about joy is that as available as it is to us, it still requires that it to be chosen. It requires that we reduce our tolerance for things that distance us from it. And it demands that we unweight ourselves from anything that smothers us from becoming numb to it. This is when boundaries are vital. Boundaries are a form of self care and self stewardship. Hardship plays its role in disheartening us from joy. Unexpected events have a way of snatching us away from our joy during moments when we are basking in it. Life gets hard, and it's easy for troubles to distract and deter us from life's sunshine. It's in these moments that joy requires fierce structure, radical mindfulness, even stronger discipline and firmer boundaries.  

Boundaries force you to return inward. Boundaries organize your discipline. Discipline makes room for your joy. Joy allows you clarity to recognize your blessings. And in turn, your ability to recognize your blessings, uncovers your capacity to live fully in your joy. This is what protection of your joy looks like. It's about radically choosing it. It means being intentional enough about your joy to establish a standard for it and create structure around it. It means not just allowing anything to hinder you from it. This is all a part of your joy journey. Difficult moments are sure to come. It is inevitable. Your joy journey is not just a road of rainbows, clouds and morning dew. But it equally consists of stumbles that propel you into your storms, and purposeful steps that walk you out of it and  back into the sunshine. You can not hide away, escape or avoid challenges in life. You must choose to face life head on. 

Joy is waiting for you to regain strength from life's blows. It is waiting for you to protect it at all cost. It's waiting for you to prioritize it enough to deny access to  anything that will pull you away from it. It's asking you to stop prioritizing your brokenness and emphasize your boundaries. Joy never hides away from us. We turn our attention away from it. We drift away from our delight when life's circumstances have grabbed our full attention and distracted us. But boundaries reduce drifting. They establish a threshold of low to no tolerance. Anything beyond that threshold is beyond your capacity to maintain your joy. Why expect to keep something that you can't maintain? Even a gardener, whose profession is to grow living things around them, establishes a fence and a boundary around their garden. They identify how much territory they have capacity to maintain. What they can't maintain does not remain a part of their garden. They do not steward what they lack the capacity or resources to manage. They identify the portions of their territory where access is forbidden. They understand that when boundaries are not set, their garden risks being trampled. They measure their reach. They tend to both the garden and the boundary. They work to maintain the boundary. They manicure around the boundary. They pull up any weeds. They uproot any unwanted growth. They mow the lawn. They remove any trash or debris. They understand that consistent maintenance relays instruction. They understand that a clean, clear boundary is less likely to be mistaken for anything else. Over time intruders understand that it's indeed a boundary.  Not a trash reciprocal. Gardeners understand that consistent effort renders results. Their discipline to upkeep the boundary sets the standard for how it should be respected and treated. To remain in your joy, you must be like the gardener. You must grow and attend to only living things around you. You must establish a threshold around your life that prohibits others from accessing your territory and trampling on your joy. Then you must maintain your threshold daily and consistently. You must help others identify your boundaries by becoming a steward of them.  You must help others identify the value of your vegetation by caring for it. Why think you can keep the essence of you, but not be required to put in the work to keep up with the maintenance of your joy? Establishing boundaries helps joy to function at its ultimate capacity. Not setting them, will cause you to drift further away from your joy. In turn, allowing anyone or anything to sway you anyway. Boundaries are thresholds for protection, not obstructions of isolation. They emphasize your self worth and your value. They are intended to serve you. Not hinder you. Setting boundaries is a security measure for self stewardship.