Читать книгу Giving Thanks - M. J. Ryan - Страница 10

Joy is prayer—Joy is strength—Joy is love—Joy is a net of love by which you can

catch souls. She gives most who gives with joy.

—Mother Teresa

I don’t know about you, but in general, there hasn’t been a lot of joy, that open-

ing and swelling of the heart, in my life. It wasn’t because of my circumstances,

because they weren’t particularly hard, but because of my mental training. Like so

many of us, I was busy climbing the ladder of success, and took no time to enjoy

the journey. I was too busy getting on to the next challenge. But I got sick and

tired of a joyless existence, and so have thought a lot in the past few years about

how to bring more joy into my life. The more I think about it, the more I believe

that joy and gratitude are inseparable. Joy is defined by the dictionary as an

“emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of

possessing what one desires,” while gratitude is that “state of being appreciative

of benefits received.” In other words, whenever we are appreciative, we are filled

with a sense of well-being and swept up by the feeling of joy.

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