A Collection

"...for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy." Psalm 63:7

I have numerous blogs in the works, but none fit to post as-of-yet. I feel like the thirsty protagonist that mutters: “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1834)

Therefore, in the interest of my ritual, please accept this humble offering...

Happiness is circumstantial. Joy is environmental. Joy is my catch phrase. It’s my mantra, my theme song. Joy is where I want to function. It’s where I want to live. Happiness and joy, though they seem like synonyms, are actually just neighbors on the same street. When you build your house on the street where joy and happiness live, you can choose to invite them both to visit. Happiness might come in, check what’s in the fridge, watch a couple sit-coms with you but then it will leave and forget to shut the door on its way out... but joy, if your invitation is sincere, joy will move in and make your house its home.

"Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day." Henri Nouwen

"Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are." Marianne Williamson

"Joy is not in things; it is in us." Richard Wagner

"To get joy, we must give it and to keep joy, we must scatter it." John Templeton

"Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough." Emily Dickensen

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." Nhat Hanh

"Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties." Hellen Keller

"Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

"Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy." Joseph Campbell

"Joy is the simplest form of gratitude." Karl Barth

"Where there is love, there is joy." Mother Teresa

"Patience is the key to joy." Rumi

"Without love and laughter there is no joy; live amid love and laughter." Horace

"Comparison is the thief of joy." Theodore Roosevelt

"True joy results when we become aware of our connectedness to everything." Paul Pearsall

"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them." Khalil Gibran