Juicy Living
by Phylis Clay Sparks

    What do you think about when you hear the word, juice? You might think about electricity or some other form of power.  When you plug in an appliance, you think “Now it’s getting some juice.”  When your cell phone goes dead you might say, “It just ran out of juice.”  Perhaps you consider gossip or secret information to be “juicy.” Some people use the word juice in reference to money: “You got the juice for that?” The word juice can also be about the natural fluids of the body, as in gastric juices.
    There are many ways to use the word juice, but I’m using it to describe the essence of life within you. I’m using it to describe what you might call your spiritual electricity or energy or inner power; your strength, vitality, or essence — your “juice.” I’m referring to your inner wisdom, joy, passion and empowerment as your juiciness.  I’m using it to describe how you live when you live “juicy.”
    On those days when you feel drained and running low on energy, you might ask yourself, “Where’s the juice? Why do I feel so powerless, so tired, so depleted, so squeezed dry?” These are the times when you may simply need physical rest. But it may also be those times when you have unplugged from life itself, when you have pulled the plug on your enthusiasm or when you have let your mind run amuck, focusing on those thoughts that squeeze the life out of you or cause your feelings to ferment inside.
    Fermentation is a state of agitation, an excited or seething state that turns one thing into another. Perhaps your mind, your thoughts and your feelings have acted like yeast or an enzyme that causes fermentation or the bubbling up of anger, critical judgment, hurt, anxiety and so on. That’s when the juiciness inside feels toxic, sluggish, lifeless and bored. Then, when something triggers your emotions, what comes out is generally not very pleasant. 
    Think for a moment about your favorite drink. Imagine someone giving you a big cup filled to the brim with hot coffee. You take a sip and say, “Ah, that’s good!” Now what would happen if, as you take the next sip, someone comes along, bumps into you and now what was in the cup is all over you, the other person and on the carpet, too?  What was in the cup was upset and came out, pouring itself all over the place. You might try to blot or rub out the spill, but the damage is done. 
    Like hot coffee, our feelings sometimes pour out in words that burn our friends or family members. Like grape juice or tomato juice, our feelings can pour out and cause stains that can’t be totally cleaned up. 
    Author Wayne Dyer put it this way: “When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out — because that’s what’s inside.  When you are squeezed, what comes out is what is inside.”
    What comes out of you when you are squeezed? Is it love, compassion, peace and joy juice, or is it sour grapes, gossip, angry words or some other toxic juice? What have you internalized that has fermented or putrefied into something rotten, corrupt and extremely objectionable?
    All of us have some fermented juice inside, but beyond all of it is a basic sweet and fresh “juiciness” that comes from the One Source. Beyond all the sour stuff is the sweetness of Spirit. When we plug into that, we can transmute all the other stuff into joy and enthusiasm that bubbles up inside us and helps us find the real juiciness of life.
    May the year 2010 bring to you a year of sweet juiciness and the true joy of living.