Guest writer: Jean Wise

Frederick Buechner wrote, “We have God’s joy in our blood.”   And I would add in our DNA.

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.  He will take great delight in you; in his love, he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing.  Zephaniah    3: 17

My practice of joy takes these intentional steps: Seeing. Saying. Savoring

Seeing – paying attention to all the moments of joy in each day. 👀

Saying – expressing gratitude for joys. 💋

Savoring – pausing and beholding those moments. 💖

The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.  - Julian of Norwich

Each day I watch for joy, recognize its gift, and allow it to seep into my soul. Thank you, Lord, for joy.

One place I find joy is in poetry. 

Mindful

Every day I see or hear something that 

more or less kills me with delight,

that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.

It was what I was born for –
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world –
to instruct myself
over and over in joy, and acclamation.

Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant –
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab, the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help but grow wise
with such teachings as these –
the untrimmable light of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made out of grass?

by Mary Oliver

* * *

And I would add that practicing joy yields gratitude.

Selah - think on this,

Connie

(https://healthyspirituality.org/the-spiritual-practice-of-joy/)