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Posts from the ‘joy’ Category

Apr 16

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Little Joys, Big Life Woven

“I would simply like to reclaim an old and, alas, quite unfashionable private formula: Moderate enjoyment is double enjoyment. And: Do not overlook the little joys!” – Hermann Hesse

“In a world pocked by cynicism and pummeled by devastating news, to find joy for oneself and spark it in others, to find hope for oneself and spark it in others, is nothing less than a countercultural act of courage and resistance. This is not a matter of denying reality — it is a matter of discovering a parallel reality where joy and hope are equally valid ways of being. To live there is to live enchanted with the underlying wonder of reality, beneath the frightful stories we tell ourselves and are told about it.” – Maria Popova

Whisper of a breeze
Warmth of sun
Delight of flowers
Play of children
River flow
Trees in praise
Blue sky brilliance
Movement of song, dance
Embrace of presence spilling into amazement
In the knitting of small joys, big life woven
For the sense and senses to partake.

“[There are] many other small joys, perhaps the especially delightful one of smelling a flower or a piece of fruit, of listening to one’s own or others’ voices, of hearkening to the prattle of children. And a tune being hummed or whistled in the distance, and a thousand other tiny things from which one can weave a bright necklace of little pleasures for one’s life.” – Hermann Hesse

Apr 13

Joy Seeking and Finding

“Today, seek out one small moment of joy. Just one. Maybe it’s a raindrop on your window, a flower blooming against all odds, an unexpected smile, a hot mug warming your hands.” – Diane Shiffer

“Play is the complete absorption in something that doesn’t matter to the external world, but which matters completely to you. It’s an immersion in your own interests that becomes a feeling in itself, a potent emotion. Play is a disappearance into a space of our choosing, invisible to those outside the game. It is the pursuit of pure flow, a sandbox mind in which we can test new thoughts, new selves. It’s a form of symbolic living, a way to transpose one reality onto another and mine it for meaning. Play is a form of enchantment.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

One small moment of joy
Perhaps two too
Play, laughter, exploration
Full presence in this day
In the details
A tea bag steeping, full flavor
Mining for meaning
In slivers and slices
Windows open
Fresh air, soft breeze
Enchantment, grace, light
Paint the blank canvas of this day
One slow stroke at a time.

“I don’t want to sit like a brooding hen on the nest of my past achievements. I want to keep on going deep into the uncertain act of making, to see the unknown world stretch out before me and to devote myself to exploring it.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Apr 12

Small Joys Stacking

“It is a great thing to know how to make use of the present moment.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul

“Act in such a way that all those who come in contact with you will go away joyful. Sow happiness about you because you have received much from God; give, then, generously to others. They should take leave of you with their hearts filled with joy, even if they have no more than touched the hem of your garment.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska

We forego small joys in search of big demands and conditions.
Anchoring on others changing, the world changing, us remaining the same.
“Someday when” thinking.
Yield to this day alone.
All that is present and available.
Filled and flowing.
Seek moments of joy, delight through rapt attention.
Capture and give them away.
Compound interest of love in action.
Scatter seeds, sow happiness, cast light.

“The past does not belong to me; the future is not mine; with all my soul I try to make use of the present moment.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul

Apr 11

Fluidity of Being

“So let the world go, but hold fast to joy.”― May Sarton, Selected Poems

“There has been a yearning in me that I’m only just beginning to understand, a craving for transcendent experience, for depth, for meaning-making. It’s not just that the world needs to change – I need to change, too. I need to soften, to let go of the tight empirical boundaries, to find a greater fluidity in my being.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Loosening of grip.
Fluidity of being.
Entering the flow.
Softening to unfolding.
Ordinary days
Extraordinary becoming.
Hold fast to joy.
Grace and peace.
Make way.

“Now I become myself. It’s taken time, many years and places.”― May Sarton

Apr 7

Nose to the Joy Trail

“Keep your nose to the joy trail.” – Buffy Sainte-Marie

“Joy bursts in our lives when we go about doing the good at hand and not trying to manipulate things and times to achieve joy.” —C.S. Lewis

Ordinary moments.
Good toy.
Play and delight.
Connection.
Grace and gratitude.
Small things stacking.
Encouragement.
Soft breeze.
Quiet moments.
Laughter.
Color and fragrance.
Music.
Glimmers, beams, slivers.
Attention and awe.
Nose to the joy trail.
Gather and scatter.
Seed, bloom, burst.

“It is a kind of transcendence; joy is a glimmer of love and forgiveness and wholeness that lifts us out of reality for a moment and gives us back to ourselves, anew.” Kate Bowler, Joyful Anyway

Mar 11

Try on Joy, You Look Good in that Color

“Blessed are we who are learning to hope.
And how to let go.
When to act.
And when to stop.
Holding together two irreconcilable truths:
that our lives are so valuable
precisely because we have much to fear
with much to love.” – Kate Bowler

“Blessed are we needing help waking up
to the music, the movement,
and the color of living,
who need help trying on joy instead.
The wonder of the daffodil,
the power of the tiniest seed,
cracked open and sprouting new life,
reaching, at its own pace, toward light.
Blooming.
Blessed are we who long to awake.
May we find the places where
beauty and love can reach us.
We’re ready for something new.” – Kate Bowler

Double blessings.
Grateful in real time and in memory.
To be exactly where we are and present on this day.
Whether mess or bliss.
Usually, a blender of both and mostly in between.
To let go of the illusion of someday when.
Entering now with vigor, delight, anticipation.
From muted, black and white to the brilliant color of living.
A day at a time.
Planting seeds, sprouting new life, spring in bloom.
Try on joy.
You look good in that color.

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”― Eric Hoffer

Feb 25

Hello Sunshine

“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields…Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.”― Mary Oliver

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.” – Mary Oliver

Loosen your grip.
Put it down.
Lighten up.
Make way.
Give into joy.
Smile spilling into laughter.
Song to dance.
Gratitude, grace, goodness.
May you bask here awhile.
Be made new.

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.”
― Mary Oliver, Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays

Feb 15

With Elation

“Good science and good art are always about a condition of awe . . . I don’t think there is any other function for the poet or the scientist in the human tribe but the astonishment of the soul.”― Derek Walcott

“The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.”― Derek Walcott

The work of rest, reflection, pause
To sit
To not tend to anything but the moment
To slow
To anchor in presence
To put down doing
To embrace being
With kindness, joy, astonishment, laughter, gratitude, anticipation.
Feast on this day, the place where life is unfolding.
Greet with elation.

“I should like to keep these simple joys inviolate, not because they are innocent, but because they are true”― Derek Walcott, The Antilles

Nov 12

Unraveling Magic

“In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.”― W. H. Auden

“This is a reminder to let you know that you are not here just to do stuff, just to perform duties and complete tasks.
You are here also to feel happy, and content, and inspired and well within yourself.
You are here to have some fun, create meaningful moments and find the sparkle in your eyes again.
You are here to unravel the magic of being alive, the magic of being you. To heal, to feel whole again.
Do something today that lights you up. That activates your joy. That brings about a genuine smile from your heart.
You are worth the effort.” – S.C. Lourie

Permission granted
To pause
To not crowbar everything into a day
To have fun, the tail wagging kind
A call to joy
Answer the call
Unravel some magic today.

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”― Steven Pressfield

Nov 7

Dividends of Joy

“You may delay, but time will not.”― Benjamin Franklin

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”― Mother Theresa

Investment of time
Distribution of energy
Diversification of pursuit
Direction of attention, of noticing
Distribution of kindness, generosity, light
Dividends of joy, love, gratitude
Return on investment
Portfolio of days
Well spent
One day at a time.

“To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds,”― William James

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