Joy
Today I am grateful for time with my family yesterday and the joyful sound of laughter.
Speaking of joyful, today I pick the word joy. We each can give examples of it, but would probably define it a little bit differently from one another. My unofficial definition of joy is feeling connected and content in my present circumstances.
Joy used to be elusive. It seemed too big and unattainable for a deep thinking pessimist like me. (I may have appeared to some to be positive on the outside, but my brain operated in the default mode of self-pity.) I think my definition was off though too. I thought joy had to be big and obvious. That it was all about the emotion. My newer definition keeps the joy in the here and now, and it is often subtle. I just need to be paying attention.
Gratitude practice helps me find the joy regularly. I had to smile recently when my co-worker Sue passed along a version of the quote below to me, having thought of me as she read it. And then just a couple days later, my sister Zita emailed me the quote after she came across it on Facebook. It brings me joy to know that my sharing of and writing about gratitude has left a mark on others. It certainly has left a mark on me. Marks of joy.
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."
What was passed on to me didn't include the author of the quote. It sounded vaguely familiar. It didn't take long to research and discover that the words are those of Melody Beattie, a writer I am grateful for.
This is a description of the author from her website:
Melody Beattie is one of America’s most beloved self-help authors and a household name in addiction and recovery circles. Her international bestselling book, Codependent No More, introduced the world to the term “codependency” in 1986. Millions of readers have trusted Melody’s words of wisdom and guidance because she knows firsthand what they’re going through. In her lifetime, she has survived abandonment, kidnapping, sexual abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, divorce, and the death of a child. “Beattie understands being overboard, which helps her throw bestselling lifelines to those still adrift,” said Time Magazine.
And I smiled further. Over the holidays I had been doing some cleaning and came across two of Beattie's books that I had used for a time and then put away. I decided to take them out again and use them in 2014. Good material, good reading, good wisdom can always be recycled. (Being a slow learner, I need it recycled.) On top of that, I had received those two books from recovery friends. Friends who have taught me about joy. Friends who have shown me their joy and helped me find more of my own.
The journey to joy need not be a long one. Go find some today. Unlock the fullness of life.
Speaking of joyful, today I pick the word joy. We each can give examples of it, but would probably define it a little bit differently from one another. My unofficial definition of joy is feeling connected and content in my present circumstances.
Joy used to be elusive. It seemed too big and unattainable for a deep thinking pessimist like me. (I may have appeared to some to be positive on the outside, but my brain operated in the default mode of self-pity.) I think my definition was off though too. I thought joy had to be big and obvious. That it was all about the emotion. My newer definition keeps the joy in the here and now, and it is often subtle. I just need to be paying attention.
Gratitude practice helps me find the joy regularly. I had to smile recently when my co-worker Sue passed along a version of the quote below to me, having thought of me as she read it. And then just a couple days later, my sister Zita emailed me the quote after she came across it on Facebook. It brings me joy to know that my sharing of and writing about gratitude has left a mark on others. It certainly has left a mark on me. Marks of joy.
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."
What was passed on to me didn't include the author of the quote. It sounded vaguely familiar. It didn't take long to research and discover that the words are those of Melody Beattie, a writer I am grateful for.
This is a description of the author from her website:
Melody Beattie is one of America’s most beloved self-help authors and a household name in addiction and recovery circles. Her international bestselling book, Codependent No More, introduced the world to the term “codependency” in 1986. Millions of readers have trusted Melody’s words of wisdom and guidance because she knows firsthand what they’re going through. In her lifetime, she has survived abandonment, kidnapping, sexual abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, divorce, and the death of a child. “Beattie understands being overboard, which helps her throw bestselling lifelines to those still adrift,” said Time Magazine.
And I smiled further. Over the holidays I had been doing some cleaning and came across two of Beattie's books that I had used for a time and then put away. I decided to take them out again and use them in 2014. Good material, good reading, good wisdom can always be recycled. (Being a slow learner, I need it recycled.) On top of that, I had received those two books from recovery friends. Friends who have taught me about joy. Friends who have shown me their joy and helped me find more of my own.
The journey to joy need not be a long one. Go find some today. Unlock the fullness of life.
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