Week 6: JOY — Rumination

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I am going to bypass the 3 categories Tristan set up for Week 6 of the 8 Week Challenge. No, for now, I shall simply ruminate on this concept: Joybronze, Philbrook Art Museum, Tulsa OK

I’ve certainly come to believe that Joy is distinct from Happiness.

Happiness is a response, & is therefore intermittent. Joy, in contrast, is a way of being, & could be constant. Happiness is a noun, Joy more like a verb. H is something one has temporarily (in most cases, & this is true of myself), whereas Joy is a lifestyle. While Happiness is a temporary possession — it comes & goes, & we chase it round & round. Joy, on the other hand, is an aspiration toward how to live — a person can veer between Happiness/UNhappiness (such as myself:) & yet be committed to finding Joy, being Joy-full. Actually — I feel that Happiness, we may or may not have. Joy is something we are. (Or, are not.)

These thoughts are not exactly dictionary definitions, are they? I’m speaking from a more experiential perspective, I guess. Words, the purvue of The Dictionary, are after all only sign posts, pointers — in this case — toward an amorphous, intangible idea — & what is less tangible than Happiness?? or JOY?!? Perhaps this is why we try to hang on to them so tightly, & why we chase them, grasping after them, so frantically. And why we so often feel them to be elusive & ephemeral.

Hey! Here’s a just-popped-into-my-head thought: Perhaps when we don’t need to chase Happiness, when we are content & at ease, not affirming what we are missing & wanting —>> maybe THAT is Joy.  ((One of the related articles below leads with this quote, which speaks to this last thought)):

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

Hmmmm ………. I’m going to try this one on for awhile. Your thoughts??

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Category : 8 Week Challenge, Contributers
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