coming close

the title of tonight's song expresses an emotion that i have to admit has been in short supply in my life over the past few years (and really for large swaths of my life prior to that). to confirm this perspective, i looked up the definition and it is as follows:

a feeling of great happiness and pleasure. the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.

yep, not my current experience of life at all. 

it is true that the clouds of depression have parted to a great extent (thanks primarily to the wonders of modern medicine), but can i say that anything even approximating this emotion has come into my life. no, i can't at all. in fact, i continue to question what it would take for me ever to feel like the above posted definition.

the song posted this evening speaks of the exhilaration that comes as a result of the birth of jesus (i hope by now that there's some level of acceptance that songs about this particular event will appear on occasion during this month of holiday music sharing. i think this is understandably the case given the preponderance of songs about the subject in the christmas music catalog). 

i guess if i can't experience this emotion about the most immediate circumstances in my life, then at least for 3 minutes and 38 seconds i can come close in this celebration of god's great gift to the world.

joy - cindy morgan from one silent night