Ooze Joy, Choose Joy

Last week, I had to give a talk at church. I know, I know--that ruins my reputation just saying that. Well, someone has to talk when the master pastor is away. Anyway, I decided to talk about "joy." Not a person named Joy; rather, the feeling/being of joy. (I do know a woman named Joy, who actually fits her name quite nicely. Funny how that happens.)

I thought I'd share some excerpts with you, mainly because I want you to have some joy. 

Everyone should have some joy.

[Side note to the Not-so-joyous-folk: I'd venture to say you are thinking this blog is going to suck if you are not feeling at least a wee bit of joy at this particular moment. Fear not. We all have joy hiding deep down inside. It may be on vacation or furlow or in a different time zone right now but I promise joy is still within the depths of your very being. Don't be skipping this blog if you are in a bad mood or grieving or so sad you can't see straight. You can read this and keep scowling, crying, shaking, lamenting. It's okay. Joy will wait for you.]

...Joy is defined as a feeling of great happiness, of great delight. To rejoice, be elated, be filled with jubilation. It is a source or cause of great delight. We speak of glee, of an underlying truth, a feeling from the soul. Most of us can think of things that have brought us great joy or of a time we experienced joy. Even at the darkest of times, joy hangs around the corner and waits for us to count the smallest of our blessings.

Joy is not frivolous. It is a need.

(I love that.)

Joy lives and moves within our very being.  

Joy is both a state of mind and orientation of the heart.

Mother Teresa said, "Joy is prayer. Joy is strength. Joy is love. Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls."

Joy is about passion and enthusiasm. One of my favorite authors is Jack Canfield. In his book, The Success Principles, he notes “no doubt you have known or have met people who are passionate about life and enthusiastic about their work. They can’t wait to get up in the morning and get started. They are eager and energetic. They are filled with purpose and totally committed to their mission. This passion comes from loving and enjoying work. It comes from doing what you were born to do. It comes from following your heart and trusting your joy as a guide.”

Joy, to me, is about doing things, about events, about people, about feelings. Joy is not about material things.  Joy is not in getting a bigger or better or house. Joy is alive—it is celebrating, communicating, sharing and giving.

Joy is an event.  

It is the little things in everyday life—little things which are really the big things—that bring me joy. The wife always says that I’m a simple girl and perhaps that I find the most joy in the simplest of things. Actually, I seem to find the most joy via food.  Chick-a-hello’s Fruit fluff brings me unimaginable joy. While on vacation last week, I ate the most delicious, most amazing, by far the best-ever veggie burger—it was so good that I did not speak one word during that meal nor did I share one bite. It was a happening, not a meal.

The wife's Lemon Cornmeal Cake brings tears to my eyes. 

Weeding uninterrupted for an hour brings me profound joy. Going to work so I may serve those in need or doing something—even the simplest of things—for someone who is unable to do so--reiterates how much giving leads to a most wonderful ignition of joy. It borders on ridiculous how much I love what I do for a living. It brings me great joy to work with the people who cross my path. All this brings joy bubbling up to the surface. 

Joy may be found in using your good china for a weekend carry-out dinner or when talking to a five year old about why the sky is blue instead of some other color. I invite all of us to contemplate what joy means—AND BRINGS—to you.

Personally, I can’t watch Ellen DeGeneres dance without experiencing ridiculous amounts of joy.

James Dillet Freeman wrote “to enjoy things is not to possess them or to be possessed by them but to USE them. The joy of anything is in the use of it.” He writes, “The joy is not to have a beautiful dress in your closet, but to wear the dress to make the day or evening colorful and bright and interesting to you and your friends or to even give it away when you will not wear it. The joy is not to have a book upon a shelf, neat and perfect in its shining clean dust jacket, but to read the book and rejoice in its information or its inspiration, even to scribble in its margin, or lend to friends to read, even friends who never return it. Things are made for life, not life made for things.”

I invite you to consider what brings you great joy and then go do it, find it be it. Don’t wait to use it, to find it, to be it.

Give thanks for everything, for Gratitude and joy go hand in hand.

And, thus ended my spiritually-inspired excerpts. See? Not so bad, not too preachy.

Writing this blog brings me joy. Thinking of all you hanging out in the Addiverse brings me joy. My dogs bring me profound joy. The wife is a ball of joy. Chocolate IS joy. The birds in the back yard bring joy on wings.

Make your own ode to Joy today.