Choose Joy

All my classes yesterday had a theme......joy and gratitude.  I just asked my students that at some point during class, that they chose joy instead of sadness and that they thought of one thing to be grateful for.  I know it might seem strange, but some days there appears to be nothing but sadness in the air.......on days like that, I think we have to remind ourselves......choose joy......find the gratitude.

I reminded them, that I too wake up some mornings and the only thing I can think to be grateful for......I am breathing.......but once I start thinking about something to be grateful for, it is amazing how many things begin to
hit my brain.  Choosing joy......, the news media floods us with the bad stuff and yes there is serious
bad, sad out there, but there is plenty of joy also......we have the choice.

I love the quote from Albert Einstein about two ways to live" as if nothing is a miracle, or you can live as if everything is a miracle".  Often the people I hear complaining and finding no joy in life and nothing to be grateful for, seem to be the ones who give the least.  I look at people who left their jobs, and families to come here to help tornado victims.....they don't complain.  They picked up tons of trash, cut trees, hugged victims,
did anything that was  asked of them and yes there are still groups here, now helping those who had no insurance rebuild their lives and their homes.  They chose joy, they found gratitude,they live as if everything is a miracle.

To choose joy sounds so simplistic, and to be grateful for one thing, is that asking too much? I believe we make our lives so much more difficult than they have to be.  We complicate, we complain, and let's face it,
we whine.  But what do we do to help? what do we do to make a difference in some one's life, what do we do to make the world a better place?  Joy and gratitude are tiny steps, but I believe those tiny steps can change our attitudes, if we change our attitudes, maybe we can change tiny things in our lives and the lives of others.  I believe there are miracles happening every second of every day, but we wear blinders, we are too smart, to sophisticated, too wise to see them.  Ha!

I ask you tomorrow, just as I asked my classes yesterday......choose joy, find one thing to be grateful for and maybe just for one minute.......live as if everything was a miracle.