Dearest Daughters,
I'm super exhausted and have a lot of first world problems to whine about, but don't we all?
Great! Now that we've accepted that we sometimes get worried, angry, anxious, etc., we can move on to focusing on the positive instead of holding on to our stress and having totally evolutionarily-maladaptive-oh-shit-I'm-being-chased-by-imaginary-lions panic attacks! (So the self-affirmations go. Or something like that.)
And there is a lot of positive on which to refocus my energies. A lot of joy that I used to let pass by, as I clung to God-knows-what instead. There's so much. Like a truck load. Like a caravan of big rigs on I-5 load.
It would be greedy to keep it all to ourselves. It's our obligation to share our joy with the world, is it not?!
Says who?
Well, Charlotte Bronte, for starters:
“Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.”
― Charlotte Brontë
And the ever prolific, Snoop D-O-double-G:
“It ain't no fun if the homies can't have none. ”
― Snoop Dogg
[A bounty of fresh produce.]
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
― John Keats
[Family fitness.]
“There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.”
― John Calvin
[Keeping ourselves entertained at a strip mall and at home (Bel's photography!)]
“There are random moments - tossing a salad, coming up the driveway to the house, ironing the seams flat on a quilt square, standing at the kitchen window and looking out at the delphiniums, hearing a burst of laughter from one of my children's rooms - when I feel a wavelike rush of joy. This is my true religion: arbitrary moments of of nearly painful happiness for a life I feel privileged to lead.”
― Elizabeth Berg, The Art of Mending
[Play dough.]
Beauty is whatever gives joy.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay
[That lovable, loyal Lapu dog!]
“An infinite question is often destroyed by finite answers. To define everything is to annihilate much that gives us laughter and joy.”
― Madeleine L'Engle
[Curly Whirly Twisty Twirly and Honey Badger.]
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
[Sticker party, Everywhere and Meticulous Editions.]
“peace is joy at rest, and joy is peace on its feet”
― Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
[Partnership, commitment and love. And a little something bubbly.]
“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. (21)”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
[Gettin' our backyard business DONE!]
“There is joy in self-forgetfulness. So I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun, the music in others' ears my symphony, the smile on others' lips my happiness.”
― Helen Keller
Snuggly Blankety iPad Movie Theatre and Sunggly Baby, Period.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 (NIV) - 7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
Headed joyfully onward!
Love you no matter what!
P.S. Where is your joy? And when you find it, heed Snoop Dogg's advice: share it with the homies!
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