Tag Archive for joy

Family–Personal Note

I’m excited. Family I love very much is coming for a week’s visit in a few days. We haven’t been physically together for two years. Phone calls, emails, and texts just aren’t the same.

Anticipation of the visit has had me thinking a lot about family, whether blood-related or friends we consider family…how much of an impact they make on our lives. They’re there, if only in spirit, in my joys and sorrows, to bounce ideas off of when I’m making a decision, to agree to disagree with on issues and concerns, to remind me to take better care of my health (because it matters to them), to respect me as a person, to let me be me and still love me.

Dear readers, I wish for all of you FAMILY!

Escape into an Elevator

I’m not a fan of elevator music, but I may become one. I thought it was my imagination that the car next to me, stations being shuffled, or just wandering by people with headphones screaming were all tuned into the same music somehow, even though it was many different genres. Nope, according to the Journal of Popular Music. They studied the lyrics of over 6000 songs from the Billboard Top 100 (500 songs) for the last 60 years, through 2016. What they found was that lyrics have become less happy and joyful and increasingly more filled with disgust, anger, sadness, and fear.

Most of us listen to music for entertainment, not to produce ill feelings.

In our current world, where politicians lie and call each other names, where leaders manipulate our beliefs, where brother is purposely turned against brother–show me to the nearest elevator!



I Know Where You Are Today…But Not Tomorrow

We’ll start 2017 with a little laugh at ourselves.  Let’s hear it for good intentions…and  for the fact that we’re human.  Then we can get on with the main task of the new year, living.

Have a 2017 filled with health, happiness, and the joy of life!

For Those Who Observe Lent–and Everyone Else

Today’s Thursday Thought gives the Pope’s insight on how to observe Lent, and, by extension, how to live life.

POPE FRANCIS’ WORDS

Do you want to fast this Lent?

  • Fast from hurting words and say kind words.
  • Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
  • Fast from anger and be filled with patience.
  • Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
  • Fast from worries and trust in God.
  • Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.
  • Fast from pressures and be prayerful.
  • Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy.
  • Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.
  • Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
  • Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.

Discovering Joy

Kahlil Gibran, with his simple wisdom, has always been a favorite of mine.  In today’s Thursday Thought he tells what he discovered was joy-filled.

 

 

Personal Note: My Christmas

Today I thought I’d share my Christmas glow with you.  My husband and I spent five days in a little place called Nuevo, CA.  There’s nothing there to speak of–maybe half a dozen family-owned businesses and an occasional tumble weed-blocked road.  The lack of McDonalds, Walmart, and traffic was refreshing, and the view of the rugged-rock mountains from the desert floor was spectacular.

Our hosts, Trino and Maria–our son’s future in-laws–recently moved onto five acres of quiet beauty.  Slowly they’re turning the land into a ranch, planning to build a barn for their three horses and add chickens and ducks and they’re-not-sure-what-else.  Their home is a barn-shaped house filled with warmth and love.

Christmas Eve and Day the house and yard were overflowing with family of all ages.  Food was plentiful and constant, all homemade, from traditional tamales to the Navajo daughter-in-law’s Navajo fry bread. (I’ve decided that Mexican moms and Jewish moms have one big thing in common: their unending cry of “Eat, eat, eat!”)

Gifts were thoughtful.  For example, one of their sons who is a Marine (four active-duty tours in recent years) exchanged stories with my ex-submarine-sailor (two tours, including Nam) husband, then gifted him with the ribbons my husband had earned but lost over the years, plus a Navy watch.  The talented fry-bread cook gave me–someone she’d never met–a stunning necklace, crafted in the Navajo style, which took her two days to make.

Needless to say, the two sets of people bonded into one family. Our son had already been totally accepted long before; now we’re part of a larger family, too.  This was a most excellent Christmas gift for me.  I hope yours was just as joyful.