Joy and unhappiness come with a price. Working out of negative relationships and into healthy and creative relating with others requires energy expenditure. But, whatever we choose, energy will be expended. And, the most amazing facet of this journey into joy is the oneness we feel with our actions. The self empowering aspect of being able to know that the way in which we cultivate attitudes and relationships effects our capacity to be well or unhappy. It is a wondrous power that we possess as human beings to grow into that place of being able to pay the price in order to move into depths of self and relational fulfillment. One sincere woman told me, “But all this doesn’t just happen if you had a dysfunctional childhood…..it takes work to get there.” Of course, she was right. In the words of Emerson, “By your own act you teach the beholder how to do the practicable. According to the depth from which you draw your life.” We have to grow into this ability as we seek enlightenment about issues, conflicts, traumas from the past that weaken and even cripple us; but as we are able to heal from our histories by truth facing and feeling what we need to feel and working out toxic troubles there then comes newness of being and potential that takes us into realms of incredible happiness and joy that have come with a price that we have been willing to pay.