Someone tells me they have gotten vaccinated, and my arms fly up in the air, my tail wiggles and I cheer out loud. I cannot stop that happy dance.  It is celebration. Joy is bubbling. Thankfully over the last couple of months I’ve been able to do this happy dance more and more often.

Each time I do that vaccine happy dance I feel hope rise from deep within me. In moments of celebration, I see clearly that with each vaccination we all (7,800,000,000 humans) on the planet are one step closer to surviving together. Hope is balm for a grieving heart, hope is a boon in the face of bone deep fatigue, hope is affirmation of life. Hope is shared. 

While pondering the rise of the feeling of hope within me, I have also been re-reading The Book of Joy by his holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams.  I am reminded of the concept of Mudita. 

Mudita is a word from Sanskrit and Pali that has no counterpart in English. It is often translated as “sympathetic joy” or “unselfish joy”, or joy in the good fortune of others.

The Dalai Lama explains Mudita as

“…when someone gets something or has more success you are able to rejoice in their good fortune… a person who has a genuine concern for others’ well-being, will rejoice in others’ good fortune because you will be happy that what that person aspires for is being obtained.”

“Mudita recognizes that life is not a zero-sum game, that there is not just one slice of cake in which someone else’s taking more means we get less. Mudita sees joy as limitless…mudita is based on the recognition of our interdependence.”

I’m so lucky to have been raised in a mudita mind set. In our growing up years anytime my big sisters came home with good grades my mom would say “today we all get to celebrate the A+”. 

When I was in preschool there were no grades, so it felt wonderful to join in celebration of my sisters’ excellence and it helped me to see how important it was that at other times I needed to play quietly so my sisters could study. The shared celebration helped my young mind to understand we work together, and we celebrate together. Soon both the work and the celebration feel like deep joy because we are together.

I know you know the work we all have ahead of us to survive and thrive together; to heal the pandemic, to heal the environment, to heal racial injustice and I ask you now; Can we invite celebration-joy-hope into our healing? 

Celebration looks different in every human being. 

On a recent family zoom call to celebrate my nephew’s birthday, I see my 79-year-old mama swirling her hips in her office chair and doing her signature-shoulder-groove-move, while she sings to celebrate her grandson turning 17.

My 46-year-old hubby has his own happy dance, often done in the kitchen while he hums along to his music and cooks his favorite curry dish, the dance looks like a fusion of salsa dance at the base and martial arts with a wooden spoon on top. 

When I’m with my 3- and 7-year-old nieces their celebration usually includes jumping, hopping, really any version of bouncing you can imagine, often accompanied with a mantra like “Pizza-Friday, Pizza-Friday, Pizza-Friday!”

Movement and sounding are intrinsic to human expression and I am learning that movement generates hope. Hope can bubble out of us as joy. Joy can be shared.

These are just a few examples of how humans move and sound, how humans celebrate, how we embody hope and express joy. Imagine all 7,800,000,000 humans on our planet in hope, joy and celebration. 

Just as mutida teaches us it is not a zero-sum game, my own 44 years on the planet have taught me that this is also a long game. I’m in it for the long game. I sense you are too.

In my body a daily breath and movement practice gives me the opportunity to feel hope rise even when I am alone. That sense of hope reminds me I am one of 7 billion humans and I am here to work with and celebrate my fellow humans.

Let us move and breathe for the long game. May we ALL happy dance together.