Creating Joy
“Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy.” ~Milton Erickson
I recently received this quote through a great inspirational website entitled “Motivation in a Minute”. This quote really struck me as I sometimes find myself and my friends needing this gentle reminder!
Just look around you! There is heartache, crisis, pain, disaster, tough sledding everywhere you turn! People are hurting; people are sad; they are discouraged; they think things are hopeless! YET, in the midst of all that, it is still our responsibility to create joy!! It hardly seems fair, does it?
My husband once said to me, following kidney cancer and some anxiety stemming from fear of cancer returning in the other kidney, “deb, can’t you just let me wallow in my self-pity for a little while?” His question stems from the reality that there IS pain in life-in ours and those all around us. YET, in the midst of that reality, it is STILL our responsibility to create joy!!
While walking with a friend recently, I shared the idea of focusing our “self talk” on what is good and wonderful about our lives rather than on what is painful and hurtful, sad and hopeless! What we SAY to ourselves is critical in the creation of joy. I suggested to her that she “tell herself the truth”. The truth for her life was that 1) she could get out and walk even though there was pain in the process and in the aftermath 2) it was a beautiful morning here in Florida (our home towns in Wisconsin were in the midst of a blizzard!) 3) her husband was a good provider and a hard worker; she serves a God who won’t give her more than she can bear (even when at times it may seem unbearable-He knows her frame!) AND 5) she has good friends like me to share with!
So, how about you this day? What are you telling yourself? How are you intentionally creating joy in the midst of heartache? One way to start-one way to get your focus off the bad stuff-is simply look around. Find someone else who is hurting and do something to ease or share that burden. It is amazing what that does and, in the end, you find that you have, indeed, created joy in your own life!