What is Joy? How does one recognize joy?

By sight?

By sound?

By smell?

By taste?

By touch?

Where is joy found?

Can joy be found near a cemetery plot or only in a nursery?

Can joy be found in a pile of autumn leaves or only in a flower garden?

Can joy be found in the halls of a hospital or only at a beach picnic?

Can joy be found on the city streets or only in mama’s kitchen?

Can joy be found in the mirror or only in the arms of a lover?

When is joy found?

Is joy found when we are ready to find it or only when we least expect it?

Why is joy important?

Where there is joy there is hope.

Where there is hope, we thrive.

When we thrive, others thrive.

We become what I call, ‘Watering Cans’. Watering Cans help people and animals thrive.

In today’s world, joy seems more difficult to find.

Our world moves faster today than yesterday leaving us all a bit more depleted of hope. We can pray where there is more division than togetherness. We can pray for all what is wrong in the world than what is right. I encourage prayer!

Yet the world will never be free, and it will never be fair. It will never be all what we hope it to be. While we know it will never be a perfect oasis that is precisely why we need to find joy. So let’s find joy together.

The Joyful Journey

If you are like me, you write daily in a journal. I refer to my journal as a prayer journal. You may refer to your journal as simply a journal or perhaps something else. And if you don’t journal, please start this journal expedition with me today. As I tell people who don’t journal but who would like to start one, you don’t have to be a writer. Your gift may be in painting, drawing, photography, but please understand this one thing – you do have a gift. It is in our gifts that we will joy.

Why today?

Why not today?

I do have a confession though and that is today is my 57th birthday. After my blog series, Lent – In My Opinion, I have realized that what is missing in my life and perhaps in yours too is that we don’t recognize the joy in our day. No matter how bad our day may seem there IS joy. And in this journal expedition, The Joyful Journey, I will be blogging pages from my journal on where I have found joy. All blog posts will be stored in the category labeled #TheJoyfulJourney

My birthday wish today is that you will join me on this expedition of finding joy. Not only finding it but sharing it with me and the followers of The Blogging Owl. Whether in posting a comment on The Blogging Owl page or have a guest blog spot on The Blogging Owl (email me at Hoot@TheBloggingOwl.com).

Expedition Checklist

 Journal / Fountain Pen
 Good eyeglasses
 Water bottle (or coffee with a double-shot of espresso)
 Determination
 Perseverance
 Sharpen your five senses plus your sense of adventure!

May we find joy,

The Blogging Owl

(c) 2017-2018 All Rights Reserved – The Blogging Owl – SL Prielipp-Falzone