What Fills You With Joy
This morning while reading through emails, I came across this question, taken from the book: 101 Questions For Your Fourth Quarter by Matthew Kelly. I had to stop, close my eyes, and think about that.
The life we all lived as children may not have always been easy or fun. It may not have always been the happiest or easiest of times. As a child, I may not have seen that joy can take many shapes and forms. The peaceful nights rest knowing that we have loving caring parents. Dinner after a long day enduring the relentless the torment of my sister Barbara. Sunday morning all eight of my family sitting in the pew at church comforted in the knowledge that at some level we are part of a community. A summer day working in the field to put a winters worth of straw in the barn. A weekend day trip "almost" to Cedar Point amusement park. Sitting in the movie theater with Mom watching Shelley Winters go down with the Poseidon. I can still hear Dad's voice ringing in my ear, "If you go any slower you may as well be going backwards". A summer spent with Dad and some of my sisters the painting the barn.
Perhaps I am looking at my youth through rose-colored glasses but I truly believe that joy was present. Joy was present even within the difficulties and struggles of the everyday. I am not blind to the sad, the unhappy and the disappointments. But I choose to put them into perspective. It is both the joy, the good, the happy as well as the challenges, the struggles, and sadness that make us who we are. We all are formed from and through our experiences, the good, the bad and the ordinary. It is how we choose to live, formed as we have been and are still being, that determines if we live in joy.
Thanksgiving, Mon always asked, what are you thankful for. I ask, what did you do as a child or what do you do now that fills you with joy? Close your eyes, think about it.
Send Comments: boniface@oblate.info
The life we all lived as children may not have always been easy or fun. It may not have always been the happiest or easiest of times. As a child, I may not have seen that joy can take many shapes and forms. The peaceful nights rest knowing that we have loving caring parents. Dinner after a long day enduring the relentless the torment of my sister Barbara. Sunday morning all eight of my family sitting in the pew at church comforted in the knowledge that at some level we are part of a community. A summer day working in the field to put a winters worth of straw in the barn. A weekend day trip "almost" to Cedar Point amusement park. Sitting in the movie theater with Mom watching Shelley Winters go down with the Poseidon. I can still hear Dad's voice ringing in my ear, "If you go any slower you may as well be going backwards". A summer spent with Dad and some of my sisters the painting the barn.
Perhaps I am looking at my youth through rose-colored glasses but I truly believe that joy was present. Joy was present even within the difficulties and struggles of the everyday. I am not blind to the sad, the unhappy and the disappointments. But I choose to put them into perspective. It is both the joy, the good, the happy as well as the challenges, the struggles, and sadness that make us who we are. We all are formed from and through our experiences, the good, the bad and the ordinary. It is how we choose to live, formed as we have been and are still being, that determines if we live in joy.
Thanksgiving, Mon always asked, what are you thankful for. I ask, what did you do as a child or what do you do now that fills you with joy? Close your eyes, think about it.
Send Comments: boniface@oblate.info