“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see…”
-John Lennon
Tag Archives: joy
The Only Thanksgiving Recipe You’ll Ever Need
Happy (almost) Thanksgiving to all of you!
I know many people are busy preparing recipes for their Thanksgiving feast but today, I want to offer you the opportunity to make a more meaningful Thanksgiving Recipe. This recipe is not about food that you eat, but rather it’s about food for your soul. Its ingredients consist not of turkey and gravy but of joy and meaning.
If you have five minutes, I encourage you to try this out. I recently completed my own Thanksgiving Recipe with my personal Ingredients for Joy and Meaning and I think that it has immense benefits. I’ll explain more later on…
Are you ready? Here we go…
Grab a pen and paper and make a list that answers this question: “When things are going really well in your life, what does it look like?”
Call the list “My Thanksgiving Recipe: Ingredients for Joy and Meaning.” This is your personal Thanksgiving Recipe and I promise you it will be more fulfilling than any other dish you feast upon this holiday season.
Here is a sample with some of the items from my personal Thanksgiving Recipe: Ingredients for Joy and Meaning (to give you some ideas):
– Eating Healthy
– Exercising regularly
– Plenty of sleep
– Lots of time spent in the company of friends
– Meaningful work that doesn’t consume me
– Time spent reading and writing
– Going to church regularly
– Plenty of time to spend with my dog
– Time for singing, dancing, and performing
– Creating and regularing sharing my work with other people
– Not being overly concerned or consumed by family affairs and/or drama
– Time spent outside/exploring
– Adventures and new experiences
– Someone to go on adventures and share these new experiences with who equally enjoys them
– Connecting deeply and spiritually with at least one other person
– Romance
– Progressing towards an established and realistic goal
Once you have finished your Thanksgiving Recipe: Ingredients for Joy and Meaning, now I want you to write a “Dream List” consisting of all of the things that you want to accomplish and/or acquire in your lifetime.
After you’ve completed both lists, compare the two.
I think you may be surprised to find, as I was, that nothing on my “Dream List” in any way enhances or changes my “Thanksgiving Recipe: Ingredients for Joy and Meaning” list.
In other words, if we can simply let go of our “Dream List” and begin to embrace our “Ingredients for Joy and Meaning” list, we’ll realize that we’re already living out our dreams, right now. What more could we possibly have to be thankful for?!
As you go about your Thanksgiving holiday, feel free to pass along this important recipe to your loved ones. And remember, gratitude and joy always go hand in hand.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hungering for Joy
The idea that we’re “not enough” permeates our lives whether we’re aware of it or not.
Think about our typical day. We wake up and think, “I didn’t get enough sleep.” or “I don’t have enough time.” We spend so much of our time complaining or worrying about what we don’t have enough of… We don’t have enough money. We don’t have enough work to do. We don’t have enough weekends. We’re not talented enough. We’re not driven enough. We’re not smart enough.
Before we even sit up in our beds each morning, we’re already inadequate in our own eyes. What begins as a simple expression of the hurried life, grows into the great justification for an unfulfilled life.
It makes complete sense why we have become a nation hungry for joy…because we’re starving from lack of gratitude.
I am enough.
Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are. – Marianne Williamson
Joy
“Twinkle lights are the perfect metaphor for joy. Joy is not a constant. It comes to us in moments- often ordinary moments. Sometimes we miss out on the bursts of joy because we’re too busy chasing down extraordinary moments. Other times we’re so afraid of the dark that we don’t dare let ourselves enjoy the light.
A joyful life is not a floodlight of joy. That would eventually become unbearable.
I believe a joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude, inspiration, and faith.”
-Brene Brown
Joy vs Happiness
“Joy seems to me a step beyond happiness. Happiness is a sort of atmosphere you can live in sometimes when you’re lucky. Joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love.” -Adela Rogers St. Johns
The opposite of joy is not sadness, it’s fear.
A Light From Within
People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
The Song of The Seed by Macrina Wiederkehr
Life unfolds
A petal at a time,
slowly.
The beauty of the process is crippled
when I try to hurry growth.
Life has its inner rhythm
which must be respected.
It cannot be rushed or hurried.
Like daylight stepping out of darkness,
like morning creeping out of night,
life unfolds slowly a petal at a time
like a flower opening to the sun,
slowly.
God’s call unfolds
A Word at a time,
slowly.
A disciple is not made in a hurry.
Slowly I become like the One
to whom I am listening.
Life unfolds
a petal at a time
like you and I
becoming followers of Jesus,
discipled into a new way of living
deeply and slowly.
Be patient with life’s unfolding petals.
If you hurry the bud, it withers.
If you hurry life, it limps.
Each unfolding is a teaching
a movement of grace filled with silent pauses,
breathtaking beauty
tears and heartaches.
Life unfolds
a petal at a time
deeply and slowly.
May it come to pass!
By Macrina Wiederkehr
Relationship Ropes (A Poem)
How long will you let this continue?
Or is the fault on me?
Lost and wondering, hopeful pondering
‘Tis the life I lead.
I wait for you and I wait some more
to hear your howling outside my door
But silence pierces through the room
And all I have are thoughts of you.
Desperation
Anticipation
Angst and doubts
Cause separation
I feel us slipping.
What’s it I’m missing?
Weren’t we just kissing?
Where’s the knot?
While I’m holding on to it
You seem to be letting go
as we both wait to see
who breaks the rope.
My Hope For You This New Year (A Poem)
My hope for you this New Year
is forgiveness of yourself and others,
revival of what matters most,
relationships with friends and lovers.
My hope for you is motivation,
bigger dreams, and inspiration.
Realistic goals and follow through,
these things are my hope for you.
My hope for you this New Year
is healing what you’ve broken;
repairing, mending, letting go
of all apologies left unspoken.
I hope when you look back to where
you were this time last year,
you’re in an entirely different place.
Your truest self is ever near.
I hope that you have grown and changed.
With open arms embrace the pain,
search for joy, and new love, too.
These things are my hope for you.
Vehicle of Wisdom 