Speaker: Vince Klassen
There’s a video of Aleksander Gamme having an insane moment of happiness. He’s a polar explorer who, after 84 days of being alone at the South Pole, dragging a sled from the coast to the South Pole and back, finds a bag of Cheez Doodles, Cheez Doodles, after eating nothing but freeze dried food and butter for 84 days, he finds something with actual taste – and he loses his mind with happiness. He’s screaming like a crazy person because he’s so happy.
And while we probably don’t get it because we are not polar explorers, we have all had times when something amazing happened around us and our happiness soared: promotion, graduation, wedding, holiday. You name it! It sparked happiness. I love those moments. I’m calling them Cheez Doodle moments.
But what happens when those moments don’t come? What happens when you don’t get the promotion, or you don’t have enough credits to graduate, you get a divorce, a pandemic locks you in your house for months. What happens then?
His holiness the Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu felt that understanding happiness was important enough that they spent the last time they were able to be together to explore that topic and share their years of wisdom with us. Because, regardless if you don’t find the Cheez Doodle moments, they say you can still find Joy. And they do have joy even though life has been super tough for them. And that insight can be revolutionary for many of us. This week we are going to explore the first step of their Path to Joy, learning why we might be looking for happiness in the wrong place.
To donate to this podcast and support the making of more of these please visit www.friendschurch.ca/podcast
Resources:
Cheese Doodle happiness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC8gJ0_9o4M