JOY
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DECFMBER2008 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
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Once or twice a year, I’ll sfc
outside, take a deep breath, arid
smell sometliing in therabmiat
reminds me of my childhood
and going to the small municipal
airport in our town with my
father. We would go on
weekends, very early in the
morning and if die weather was
perfect, we would go up for a
joyride. The feeling of firing with
my father in his two-seat airplane
was always so exhilarating for me.
I can’t explain what scents die air
at moments like diese, but it stops
me in my tracks and fills me with
die joy of being a kid again. I
wish 1 could bottle diat smell.
Jensie M iksich
se n io r g ra p h ic d e sig n e r
t’s a child’s arms wrapped around
I
your neck in an out-of-the-blue hug.
It’s throwing back the curtains to
see a world blanketed w ith snow.
It’s the first glimpse of a loved one
safely returning from war. It’s the
w arm th of a lover’s hand, it’s listening to the
rain, it’s watching a grandchild graduate from
college, it’s unexpected, sudden, and over-
whelming. It’s joy.
Not to be confused w ith happiness, joy
comes in fleeting moments of shiny perfection
when the edges between us and others blur. It’s
a gift, one that comes from someplace deep and
divine on its own term s and schedule. “You
can’t make yourself feel joyful,” says Sidney
Callahan, author of
Created for Joy.
“It would
be like trying to tickle yourself.” W hile you
can’t manufacture it, you can cultivate the
soil of your own soul so that you are more
open to joy.
TEND TO YOUR HAPPINESS
Joy can burst through any mood, no m atter
how negative, but it appears most in a climate
of happiness. “People who are happier in
general will experience more joyful
moments,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, author
of
The How of Happiness
and a psychology
professor at the University of California,
Riverside. To increase your happiness
quotient, think about w hat brings you
pleasure. Now, make a mental note of those
activities that you enjoy. Plan time for those
interludes throughout your week just as you
would schedule a doctor’s appointment.
“There’s no happiness w ithout action,”
says Lyubomirs
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Our church had raised money to drill wells in Ghana
keep drinking contaminated water. During the mission, an
and in broken English kept saying “Thank you, than)< you.” He
to ear. Experiencing profound gratitude face-to-face
joyful So is being your brother’s keeper.
Eric Liskey
d e p u ty e d ito r, g a rd e n a n d o u td o o r liv in g
ike that'
