A Note from Anneliese Schultz

Dearest Sevy Family,

I am thinking of you over and over in these days. My heart felt like it stopped for a moment to hear that Joy has left the earth. I’ve cried, and yet when I thought I would fall into sadness, I found I couldn’t, for I know so strongly that Joy, both the person and the emotion, is forever. Joy was also so very much like my own beloved father, Spaulding, and I take solace knowing that they are both with God.
I hope it’s all right to edit and use some words from the birthday letter I sent Joy almost 4 years ago, after we had reconnected with many of you on that brilliant double-rainbow weekend:

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…I just want to stay in your circle, the circle of Joy, one of the most powerful realms I have ever known – an arms-wide ring of strength and humility, radiance and devotion, crazy humour and unconditional love…
How I have always loved the brilliance of your childlike wonder, the openness of your soul!
How thrilling it is now to watch this light reflected and caught, mirrored, doubled, residing forever in Alberta and MaryJoy, in Greg and Grandpa Harris and Paige and Brianna, in Victoria and Ericka and Trey!
Dear Joy, you and Alberta started this! It occurs to me that maybe Alberta is the lighthouse and you are the beam of light, playing on the waves, breaching the darkness, bringing the ships home safe... Or then again, you could both be beams of light, criss-crossing, playing, hiding in the mist, illuminating the night (this is starting to sound like Nirmal’s poem “Wind in the Trees”!) In any case, BRAVISSIMI!!!
***

The so-timely March 11 thought in “God Calling” says, “When I want to express to man what I am, what My Father is, I strive to make a very beautiful character.” That is exactly what Christ did in both my father and in Joy, and we are all the better for it.

A quote I love from A Course in Miracles seems to speak of Joy and of your whole family:

“When a mind has only light, it knows only light.
Its own radiance shines all around it, and extends
out into the darkness of other minds,
transforming them into majesty.”

Nirmal and Max and I are with you in spirit, and send our love to all of you who are of Joy.

Love and blessings,

Anneliese