Tag: Focus

Joyful Anticipation

Joyful
Joyful

Do you look forward to each new day?

I mean, with a joyful anticipation? Not an awful dread.

This can be challenging to say the least. You have to suspect that some readers may not believe I have much experience with Hell, with challenges, problems, obstacles, fear, failure, struggle, grief, agony, hopelessness, strife, worry, doubt.

Do all of you have a ton of experience with these things?  Okay then, I rest my case. We all do. No one is immune.

Then why am I so optimistic and “joyful”?

Great question.  Some people think I’m crazy. A weirdo.  Or, worse, a fake.

It’s taken like 50 years, but, I’m totally cool with it all. Finally.

One of the secrets to being joyful, is so simple, you’re not going to believe it. And it brings great joy to tell you that tomorrow, I’ll reveal January’s “value”.

Mid Life Holiday Stress

Mid Life holiday stress can rob us of the joy  we could be experiencing, if only we could focus.

But how are we supposed to focus when this time of year is so hectic?

And it occurred to me that this time of year has always been hectic. Ever see “A Miracle on 34th Street“?

It was inspired on Christmas eve, 1944, when Valentine Davies, a screenwriter, went gift shopping for his wife.  It was hectic, crazy, and lacked the spirit of Christmas we all know in our hearts, but often fail to make time for.

Valentine set out to create a movie that would help remind everyone that the spirit of Christmas and Santa Claus, is real.  Very real.

Considered a “B” movie, it was released during the summer, and never advertised as a Christmas movie.

The American public embraced the movie so much that it ran in theaters straight through the end of the year.

It is one of the all-time great Christmas movies and one that my family and I watch every holiday season, when we can find the time.

Simplicity Key To Joy

“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!  I say let your affairs be as one, two, or three and not a hundred or a thousand… We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.” — Henry David Thoreau

Amen.

Joy Is A Choice

Joy is a choice I get to make every moment of every day.  Same with you, even if it doesn’t seem so.

Did I mention that I have a pile of emotional baggage as big as many of you?

Did I mention that my wife and I are disabled?

Did I mention we spent our life savings to become parents?

Did I mention our son has an incurable disease?

Did I mention that I’ve overcome addiction?

The list goes on and on. So please, please don’t say, “But you’ve got it made.  You are living the dream.  You are so fortunate.”

This would generally be considered an insult, and completely disrespectful.  And maybe the beginning of an excuse.

But forgiveness rushes in and all that’s left is joy.  Almost unspeakable joy.

Ignorance In Action

“Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action”. — Goethe

What does this mean exactly?  Perhaps it is as simple as this:

“The unexamined life is not worth living”.   — Socrates

We get one passage here on Earth.  Let’s make it a good one.