Choose Joy

Last week I found this whilst searching for some fabric for a new project:

I interrupted my search to ponder what could be done with it.  I decided to hang it up in the living room, but as I did not have a suitable frame lying around, I moved on to making some of the jewelry I posted earlier this week.  I have a horrible pattern of not completing projects.

It was sewn around Christmastime, in the hopes of being used as a gift, but it didn't suit.  So it was tossed into a cupboard, not to see the light for another year.  Or perhaps two, now.  How time flies!

Choosing Joy is a favorite saying of one of my lovely aunties and it is a wonderful way of living!  Here is a piece of her "Choose Joy" artwork:

Choosing joy is not something I'm good at.  At all. 

I once described myself to a cousin as a happy pessimist.  She laughed and said that it fit. 

I laugh a lot.  A lot.  I have a reputation, folks. But I also have a disturbing tendency to view the glass as half empty.

It is disturbing because that is definitely not the case in my life.

Sure, there are hopes and dreams that have crashed into the reality of aging (not that I'm old!), bad decisions, mistakes and God's providence.  

But there is far more that I have been blessed with.  Far more than I can imagine.  And I have tried!  For a spiritual exercise during the 40 days of Lent last year during I decided to write down 1,000 things for I was thankful.  And it was a fantastic experience.  It opened my eyes more fully to the beauty around me.  It helped me find greater appreciation for the necessary, if mundane, items all around.  It inspired me to walk through my day on the lookout for something new. 

It helped me view life through a lense of joy.

And that is why I continue to write things down, even on this very blog.

I'd better find a frame!