Finding Joy in the Journey
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4262
Life can be hard. Ask anyone.
Daily, it seems, the media brings wars, natural disasters, destruction, and gloom right to our front rooms—all of this piled on top of the personal challenges and disappointments we’re already facing. It’s enough to make it difficult for us to see the joy in the journey of life.
But it is there. How can we find it? How can we focus so that we feel it and make good cheer our mantra?
The great American philosopher Henry David Thoreau "used to lie abed for awhile in the morning telling himself all the good news he could think of; that he had a healthy body, that his mind was alert, that his work was interesting, that the future looked bright, that a lot of people trusted him. [Then] he arose to meet the day in a world filled for him with good things, good people, good opportunities.”1
We can do the same. We can, like Thoreau, begin the day searching the quiet chambers of our hearts for good memories and good omens. We can be like a child, quick to forgive, easy to please, able to find joy in the seemingly insignificant—because nothing that brings true joy is insignificant. In the process we will muster courage, hopefulness, and bright resolve to face the day, and we may be able to help others see how much good news life really does hold.
The best in each one of us is much more profound than the pressures on every side. Thoreau spoke well when he said, "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”2
1 Norman Vincent Peale, Enthusiasm Makes the Difference, rev. ed. (2003), 17.
2 The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Journal, March 2, 1859–November 30, 1859, ed. Bradford Torrey (1906), 159.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing this! I get the opportunity to take Japanese high school students to see the SW every March and July. It's a great experience for everyone involved.
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