JOY

Time to reflect upon 2012

If I have learned one lesson this year it is:

Happiness is a choice. Not a feeling, not something granted to us, not inevitable. BUT A CHOICE.

If any one person on this planet is capable of making really bad and really great choices it is me. I have traveled both paths. Let's be honest. I am the queen of mistakes. I have done some pretty whacky things in my day. I also have the most brilliant and amazing soul in my life. A very wonderful choice I made years ago. I choose to accept and be most grateful for the things that have molded me.

Life comes to us in such a fury that perhaps sometimes we don't even have the split second to make the right choice.....or the wrong. Instinct kicks in and we do the very best we can. Right or wrong. We reach back into the depths of an unknown place and make the decision we feel best. Right or wrong.

We choose to:

Love when love is gone.

Hug our babies tight after a tragedy.

Get married on a whim. Listen to the whisper of a heartbeat soon after.

Defy the Mayans.

Rally around our families.

Beat all odds.

Let our titles go.

Be in an amazing movie.

Start a solar company with a bad name. 

Fall in love.

Get engaged.

Fall off the Fiscal Cliff.

Start again.

Be renewed.

And believe in the impossible.

Dream. Believe. Dream.

Forgive. Forgive. Forgive. 

Accept. Accept. Accept.

I gladly welcome 2013. I choose JOY.

I choose joy. 

Because all you need is love. ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.

Lady A

My faith in the future of this nation was restored in a matter of hours last night. I was selected to be a judge for a competition called Youth Tour. Co-ops across the country select high school juniors to attend a leadership program in Washington D.C. for a week. The kids are required to submit and application and then interviewed. We selected three winners last night and let me tell you, competition was tough!

These kids were sharp. They were bright and shiny and open to the challenges of this big ole world and I was IMPRESSED. When our first candidate left the room after his interview I said ALEX FOR PRESIDENT. He is a Polish lad and grew up on a dairy farm. Needless to say, he was one of our selections and I'll be looking for him in the Times.

But this girl, Lady A, changed my life. She began with the two things in life she is most proud of: her faith and her achievements. She set goals for herself way back in 7th grade and has stayed on track so far. She was recently promoted, at 17, to manager at the restaurant where she works. She discussed her desire to veer away from the popular crowd and parties and drinking and discovered putting God first made those decisions simple.

When asked what hard thing she has overcome in her life, she explained her parents split when she was five and tears began to well. I could feel my heart sink into the soles of my boots. Betty. Twelve years later this young spirit was still overwhelmed with sadness. Her words literally made my heart ache. As she explained, I realized her situation was much more dire than Betty's but I could not help but notice how close she was to its impact. In the end, Lady A was chosen as one of the three (of 16) contestants to attend Youth Tour in Washington D.C. Myself and the other two judges agreed. She is a leader already and has so much to offer this world. Mature, kind, responsible, outgoing, wise, and much more. And as the accolades were given, I realized what an incredible human was before me. She rose from the ashes of her situation and makes the very best of her life each and every day. She has not only endured but surpassed.

Divorce is brutal. I loathe it with all my being but there is hope. Not only for Lady A and for Betty B but for all of us who have endured, surpassed and tried once again....

PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN

Not long ago I heard someone say, "Be kind always. There is a battle waging in all of us."

Peace.

I wonder how much time I have spent wanting more. More money or more square feet or more frequent flyer miles or more options for Betty or more depth in my relationships. More. More. More.

I am not sure what has changed at 1107 but over the course of the past few weeks peace has swept through our home.

A tiny lady who walks no where, only skips and sings over every step. She sings in the tub. She sings before bed. She sings in her sleep. Her heart skips and sings and pitter pats with such joy these days.

And I truly believe I have found a very solid sense of contentment. Anything in my wonderful life besides Betty and home and family and a good meal is an extra bonus. I curled up in my jammies at 8:00 p.m. last night and read in front of a blazing fire and wanted for nothing more. I feel a peace in my heart that is indescribable. I am exactly where I am supposed to be, surrounded by the exact people who are supposed to be in my life. And with that comes such a feeling of God at work. We are blessed beyond imagination and our life is incredibly simple. There is a skip in my step and I noticed myself whistling while grocery shopping at lunch.

Peace. Happiness. Faith. Joy.

“Peace is the number one beautiful ornament you can wear, I really believe that. They say you should always wear a smile, but I don't believe that you should "always" wear a smile, seriously, you're going to look stupid! But peace, you should always carry peace within you, its the most beautifying thing you could ever have or do. Peace makes your heart beautiful and it makes you look beautiful, too. You want to have perfect physical posture when you stand, sit, and walk, and peace is the perfect posture of the soul, really. Try perfect posture outside as well as inside. Peace creates grace and grace gives peace.

Peace is not a result inside us from everything around us. Peace is not submissive nor passive. On the contrary, peace is an overwhelming force which comes from within us, disrespectful of everything around us, a firm coalition of spirit and soul standing against all the unrest that abounds.”


― C. JoyBell C.