Project Joy!

I started reading a book last year called "The Happiness Project Or, Why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets, fight right, read Aristotle, and generally have more fun." By Gretchen Rubin. I have to admit that I have not finished reading this book. I liked the concept of putting more happiness in your life, but I got overwhelmed by the idea of charting your happiness, coming up with area's in your life that you would work on each month to make sure that you became happier. It just seemed to me a lot of extra work to make you happier. Now granted I like to have lots of projects going on, but I never chart them. And while I hope to

eventually read the whole book, at this time in my life reading has become one of the little moments in life that brings me peace, and so I choose books that are relaxing and contain no effort to read. But from this book idea I have come up with my own project. The best part of my project is that I will not track it, I will not come up with monthly goals, and I will just day by day try to live it the best I can. I call it "Project Joy." The idea came to me as I read a book by Sylvia Browne. She is a psychic that writes about what she believes is our purpose here on earth and what the after life might be

like. Now I think some of what she writes is close to what I believe and other things I have to say I'm not quite sure are right. I guess when we die we will all know what is true. So for my project I am going to try to focus on doing a few things each day that bring me joy. I've actually already started and found it has brought me great peace. Some things that bring me joy are napping with my cat, listening to my children practice their musical instruments, spending time talking to my husband, and working on photography projects. I hope to begin to find out all the things that bring me joy and to integrate them into my daily life.

My hope is that by doing this I can ease the stress in my life, and to see and enjoy each day more despite the trials I am going through.

Each time I blog I will have a small spot on how my project is going and what new joy I have found. Today my joy was sleeping in, and folding warm clothes. I love to put clothes right from the dryer next to my face. It is such a comfort. I think it is from my memory of having my son. I almost died, but then as I was in the recovery room after my surgery they would put these warm towels on me, and it was such a lovely feeling. It just brings a sense of peace. Also I'm hoping those who read would help me discover more small moments of joy by telling me what brings you joy. Hope you will participate.

On the job front, my husbands immediate manager is going to try to have him be made a salary employee. So lets pray that this happens. We still wait in hopes of some of his applications to other business might bring an interview. My husband is a very smart, very hard worker. Any company would be blessed to have him as an employee. I think if he were getting a salary at his current job he would be doing much better. He is a very good employee. He tries his hardest to do all his work correctly. Keep praying for us, I know that in the end we will be doing much better. Oh we had Chinese food for dinner the other night, as I was so tired from working a midnight shift then getting up and working from 7am to 3pm. My fortune cookie said " The principle of Faith is Patience." AHHHHH! How much more patient do I need to be?? Here is the definition from the dictionary " Patient : bearing pain or trials without complaint, showing self control : Calm. OK I've got a ways to go, I've been complaining haven't I. I haven't learned yet. Perhaps this whole week I will try not to complain. Lets see if I can do that.