蜜芽传媒

This week, the United Nations published its list of happiest countries in the world, ahead of next week鈥檚 International Day of Happiness. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we didn鈥檛 rank too highly here; it鈥檚 Finland and other Scandinavian countries which form, as usual, the happy huddle at the top of the charts.

But while it鈥檚 not exactly good news from some perspectives, from a spiritual angle ... should it matter? In fact, should any of us with half a conscience allow ourselves the luxury of trying to be happy, with everything that鈥檚 going on in the world?

This was a live issue for me this week when I shared a poem by Mary Oliver at a course I was running - in which she writes that her work is to 鈥渓ove鈥� the world; and to stop for long enough to take great joy in the wonders of nature... One of our group felt an understandable rush of frustration; how can we think of stopping to 鈥榚njoy鈥� nature, when we all urgently need to start fixing what we鈥檝e broken? Isn鈥檛 that just selfish?

I can see how hard it must be for any activist, in particular, to give themselves time out for happiness. There鈥檚 always more work to be done, more lives to be saved. But the researcher Bren茅 Brown speaks powerfully to this, saying that love, belonging and joy are essential, irreducible needs for all of us. And we cannot give people what we don鈥檛 have. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 fight for what鈥檚 not in our hearts.鈥�

I鈥檝e just been reading Michael MacCarthy鈥檚 brilliant nature book The Moth Snowstorm, the first half of which he calls a 鈥榣ament鈥� for the great and possibly irrevocable damage humans have wrought on so many species and habitats. It is a painful and excruciating read.

And yet, from deep within the gloom, he also urges joy - the kind that he feels upon seeing his first brimstone butterfly of the year, for example. For him, it鈥檚 the first true sign of spring, which speaks of 鈥渢he great renewal of everything鈥�, and prompts that indescribable sense of soul-stirring that many of us experience at such times.

For me, as a Christian, any human disconnection we have with God鈥檚 Creation, on the micro and macro level, can only truly start to heal as we allow ourselves that kind of joyful, loving connection - let鈥檚 call it communion - within it.

I felt deeply moved to see my own first butterfly of the year yesterday. It was, indeed, a brimstone, and yes, it filled me with great joy. How could it not? But it鈥檚 a powerful reminder, to me, too, that such joy is a weapon of love - fierce love, as MacCarthy puts it! - with which to fight, not just for the greater happiness of those without, but for the well-being of our world.

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