Tag Archives: Joy Jar

The 10/04/13 Joy Jar

4 Oct

Today was volunteer day for moi. Every person has a lesson they can teach. Moi encountered a very angry person who will never be able to let go of his anger. The anger has destroyed him and his life like corrosive acid. Let go of anger and find inner peace is the lesson.

Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be critical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.

© Max Ehrmann 1927

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is inner peace

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.
Saint Francis de Sales

The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence.
Norman Vincent Peale

Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions.
Gerald Jampolsky

Chaotic people often have chaotic lives, and I think they create that. But if you try and have an inner peace and a positive attitude, I think you attract that.
Imelda Staunton

My faith helps me understand that circumstances don’t dictate my happiness, my inner peace.
Denzel Washington

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The 10/03/13 Joy jar

3 Oct

This is the third day of the government shut-down in D.C. and that got moi thinking about views on life politics, and whatever. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is a point of view.

Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.
Victor Hugo

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
Muhammad Ali

One who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him.
Lao Tzu

It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
Aristotle

Only The universe is wider than our views of it.
Henry David Thoreau

Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret.
Robert E. Lee

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.
John Adams

A mistake made by many people with great convictions is that they will let nothing stand in the way of their views, not even kindness.
Bryant H. McGill

He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views.
William Congreve

Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.
Elie Wiesel

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
C.S. Lewis,

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The 10/02/13 Joy Jar

2 Oct

This year the fashion trend in winter gloves seems to be wild patterns and designs with strong colors. Moi even saw a pair of sequined gloves. Probably not going to buy those. BUT, moi is going to get some very crazy winter gloves. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is wild and crazy gloves.

When archaeologists discover the missing arms of Venus de Milo, they will find she was wearing boxing gloves.
John Barrymore

Old age is when the liver spots show through your gloves.
Phyllis Diller

Boxing was not something I truly enjoyed. Like a lot of things in life, when you put the gloves on, it’s better to give than to receive.
Sugar Ray Leonard

I think we do have to take off the gloves in some areas, but within balance, and at the right time and the right way, and for the right reason and with full understanding of what the consequences of that might be.
John O. Brennan

I’m generally slow to anger, quick to forgive, and I take in information before making decisions. So no matter how controversial the decision, my general demeanour is to put on white lab coat and gloves and look at the evidence, weigh the arguments and see what makes sense.
Peter Blair Henry

“MOUSQUETAIRE, n. A long glove covering a part of the arm. Worn in New Jersey. But “mousquetaire” is a might poor way to spell muskeeter.”
Ambrose Bierce

“A pure hand needs no glove to cover it.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne

“There are no little events with the heart. It magnifies everything; it places in the same scales the fall of an empire of fourteen years and the dropping of a woman’s glove, and almost always the glove weighs more than the empire.”
Honore de Balzac

Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand”
Bodie Thoene

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The 10/01/13 Joy Jar

2 Oct

Today is the first day of October. October is simply a transition month between summer and the beginning of winter.

A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you’re in and take advantage of it.
Nikki Giovanni

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ are transitions like October.

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir: We must rise and follow her, When from every hill of flame She calls, and calls each vagabond by name.”
William Bliss

“The crickets still sing in October. And lilly, she’s trying to bloom. Tho she’s resting her head on the shoulder of death, she still shines by the light of the moon.”
Kevin Dalton

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
Rainbow Rowell, Attachments

“After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the world with mellow warmth…The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her…In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.”
Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again.
Hal Borland

“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October”
Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!”
Humbert Wolfe

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The 09/30/13 Joy Jar

30 Sep

No matter what moi goes through in life, she knows that all is well with her soul.

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is Isaiah 41: 10-16:
10 So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
11 “All who rage against you
will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
will be as nothing and perish.
12 Though you search for your enemies,
you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you
will be as nothing at all.
13 For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.
14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob,
little Israel, do not fear,
for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge,
new and sharp, with many teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
and reduce the hills to chaff.
16 You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up,
and a gale will blow them away.
But you will rejoice in the Lord
and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar is Isaiah verse 41.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.
Abraham Lincoln

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.
Mother Teresa

When the solution is simple, God is answering.
Albert Einstein

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.
Maya Angelou

Never trust anyone completely but God. Love people, but put your full trust only in God.
Lawrence Welk

I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.
Henry Ford

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.
Anne Frank

The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’
Billy Graham

God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty.
Peter Marshall

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’
William Arthur Ward

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
Jesus Christ

God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.
Billy Graham

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.
Soren Kierkegaard

The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.
Plato

The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure.
John Locke

My message is that God is a good God.
Joel Osteen

There’s only one effectively redemptive sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-will to make room for the knowledge of God.
Aldous Huxley

We are either in the process of resisting God’s truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by his truth.
Charles Stanley

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The 09/29/13 Joy Jar

29 Sep

There are successive rainstorms rolling through Seattle with blustery winds and at times a heavy downpour. Still, there is something about walking in the rain that is invigorating. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is walking in the rain.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Jesus Christ

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.
Ashley Smith

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
John Ruskin

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.
Gilbert K. Chesterton

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
Langston Hughes

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.
Roger Miller

I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.
Clint Eastwood

Healing rain is a real touch from God. It could be physical healing or emotional or whatever.
Michael W. Smith

Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
Dolly Parton

Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.
John Updike

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The 09/28/13 Joy Jar

28 Sep

The bus tunnel runs underneath Seattle and on a blustery, rainy day it is a good way to escape the weather. One doesn’t expect much, just a ride. Today moi was treated to the beautiful sounds of sitar music. Like moi, one of the street musicians had taken refuge in a landing. Today’s deposit into the Joy Jar is the beautiful music of the sitar.

And why is our music called world music? I think people are being polite. What they want to say is that it’s third world music. Like they use to call us under developed countries, now it has changed to developing countries, it’s much more polite.
Miriam Makeba

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
Bob Marley

If music be the food of love, play on.
William Shakespeare

Without music, life would be a mistake.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
Plato

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.
Lao Tzu

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
Victor Hugo

Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.
Plato

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.
Ludwig van Beethoven

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.
Martin Luther

Hell is full of musical amateurs.
George Bernard Shaw

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
Berthold Auerbach

Music can change the world because it can change people.
Bono

Music is the shorthand of emotion.
Leo Tolstoy

World music is about taking things from different places and bringing them together – which is great.
Youssou N’Dour

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The 09/27/13 Joy Jar

27 Sep

Moi began the ‘Joy Jar’ experiment almost a year ago. It will end on Christmas Day because Christmas represents rebirth and renewal. The experiment was about being grateful for something each day and just being grateful for each day. So far, it has been a success. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is strength.

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.
Eleanor Roosevelt

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Keller

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.
Albert Einstein

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
Khalil Gibran

Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.
Winston Churchill

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.
John F. Kennedy

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.
Ernest Hemingway

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.
Leonardo da Vinci

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.
Hermann Hesse

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
Leo Buscaglia

We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.
Charles Stanley

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The 09/26/13 Joy Jar

26 Sep

As one matures and realizes the value of life, one is grateful to be looking at this side of the dirt. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is being grateful to be alive.

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Buddha

Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.
Will Smith

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw

Life is a song – sing it. Life is a game – play it. Life is a challenge – meet it. Life is a dream – realize it. Life is a sacrifice – offer it. Life is love – enjoy it.
Sai Baba

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’.
Erma Bombeck

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
William James

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
Confucius

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.
Sholom Aleichem

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
John F. Kennedy

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.
George Washington Carver

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
Albert Einstein

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.
Cary Grant

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
Lao Tzu

I have a simple philosophy: Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. Scratch where it itches.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth

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The 09/25/13 Joy Jar

25 Sep

One always knows when it is officially autumn – when the pumpkins and mums are all over the supermarket. No matter what the calendar says Safeway, QFC, Freddies, and Albertson will tell you what time of the year it is. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ are pumpkins and mums.

The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many…. September is dressing herself in showy dahlias and splendid marigolds and starry zinnias. October, the extravagant sister, has ordered an immense amount of the most gorgeous forest tapestry for her grand reception.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.
Carol Bishop Hipps, “October,” In a Southern Garden, 1995

Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love — that makes life and nature harmonize. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one’s very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a pefect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
George Eliot, letter to Miss Lewis, 1st October 1841

No spring nor summer’s beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face….
John Donne, “Elegy IX: The Autumnal”

Oh how we love pumpkin season. You did know this gourd-ish squash has its own season, right? Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin…. We anxiously anticipate it every year.
Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, October 2010

A hidden fire burns perpetually upon the hearth of the world…. In autumn this great conflagration becomes especially manifest. Then the flame that is slowly and mysteriously consuming every green thing bursts into vivid radiance. Every blade of grass and every leaf in the woodlands is cast into the great oven of Nature; and the bright colours of their fading are literally the flames of their consuming. The golden harvest-fields are glowing in the heart of the furnace…. By this autumn fire God every year purges the floor of nature. All effete substances that have served their purpose in the old form are burnt up. Everywhere God makes sweet and clean the earth with fire. ~Hugh Macmillan

Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.
Jim Bishop

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came,—
The Ashes, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The sunshine spread a carpet,
And every thing was grand;
Miss Weather led the dancing;
Professor Wind, the band….
The sight was like a rainbow
New-fallen from the sky….
George Cooper, “October’s Party”

Magnificent Autumn! He comes not like a pilgrim, clad in russet weeds. He comes not like a hermit, clad in gray. But he comes like a warrior, with the stain of blood upon his brazen mail. His crimson scarf is rent…. The wind…. wafts to us the odor of forest leaves, that hang wilted on the dripping branches, or drop into the stream. Their gorgeous tints are gone, as if the autumnal rains had washed them out. Orange, yellow, and scarlet, all are changed to one melancholy russet hue…. There is a melancholy and continual roar in the tops of the tall pines…. It is the funeral anthem of the dying year.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Well, it’s a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
‘Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I’m trying to please to the calling
Of your heartstrings that play soft and low…
Van Morrison

Of all the seasons, autumn offers the most to man and requires the least of him.
Hal Borland

O’ pumpkin pie, your time has come ’round again and I am autumnrifically happy!
Terri Guillemets

[A]utumn, that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness, that season which has drawn from every poet, worthy of being read, some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling. She occupied her mind as much as possible in such like musings and quotations…
Jane Austen

Autumn is the eternal corrective. It is ripeness and color and a time of completion; but it is also breadth, and depth, and distance. What man can stand with Autumn on a hilltop and fail to see the span of his world and the substance of the rolling hills that reach to the far horizon?
Hal Borland

Autumn is the perfect time to take account of what we’ve done, what we didn’t do, and what we’d like to do next year.
Unknown

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