Joy!

Joy is when we wake up from a bad dream and know that it was only a dream!�� As the Biblical quote goes, ���Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.��� Psalms 30:5

There is nothing like seeing the sunlight peeking through your window as a rooster somewhere cock-a- doodle doooo���s saying, ���Get up! Time to rise and shine!�� Time for a new and fresh start.�� As Benjamin Franklin reminds us, ���The early bird catches the worm.����� So each day is a joy- filled chance to put some more seeds in the ground or cut back some of the growth already there. One thing is certain; each new day brings the opportunity to put some new things in place that will sprout in the future.

In my novella, A Golden Leaf in Time Revised. Phoenix is poignantly named for the phoenix bird, which renews and awakens each day to begin new possibilities.�� She vows to take action and works towards bringing more positive experiences into her world.�� Modern Thought, a work from��1889 said, ���Action goes farther than speculation; it changes possibilities or simple probabilities into realities.���

So, as one scripture says, ���Count it all joy��� as we progress from one step to the next.�� Joy is when we can look back for a brief moment, reflect and see what ���by-products��� we have produced as a result as our labors.

It could be a happy healthy child, an accomplished adult-child who makes us smile; a student sent into the world adequately able to compete because of good teachers; or a minister who saved a soul by showing someone the assets of living a clean, moral life.

Joy comes in so many forms wrapped in a variety of illusive baskets.�� There are numerous things that occur in a single day that bring us joy. Oh, if we only had time to stop and jot them down!�� It could something as simple as hearing a song on the radio that makes us smile, reminisce or even dance in our seats.

There are the small things that keep us feeling uplifted and ��joyful such as a brief chat with someone while waiting in line; or a friend checking to see if we are okay; a light snack that hits the spot or laughing at a joke told by some comic on television.

Joy comes in a host of hardly noticeable ways and each day we should give thanks because we are alive. Thich Nhat Hahn titled one of his books, Breathe, You are Alive.�� One of his breathing exercises reads, ���Breathing in, I feel joyful.�� Breathing out, I feel joyful.����� Breathe and enjoy your life!

Lynn �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ��November 17, 2014