Family Tiez

Men are That They Might Have Joy

I’m often asked why I begin each morning so early, but someone has to turn the sunshine on, and I need time to do it.

People wait all week for Fridays, they wait all year for summer, and they wait their whole life for lasting happiness.  Yet, there are those who make every day one with moments of happiness, and they fill their every day with the warmth of summer.  They don’t wait for happiness, but fill their whole life with happiness.  In reality, The secrets to a happy life aren’t so secret.

There are certain truths about happiness.  Albert Einstein said and did many things, but as a young man Albert stated a truth that stayed with me all my days.  “If you truly want to be live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”  It is certainly true that people can provide happiness in your life, as can experiencing moments and things that enter your life.  Still, it is most important that happiness be more lasting when tied to seeking goals.

We all live with the objective of being happy; yet our lives are all different and yet the same.  It is basic in life  to be with someone that makes you happy.  How can you determine to be happy amoungst all the static and noise in life?  For most of us, happiness comes as welcome, but fleeting moments.  

Is there anyone in this world who does not desire to be happy? All of us are in search of happiness. But lasting happiness ever eludes us. When we look around can we say life is an unalloyed bliss? Most of us are always dissatisfied with ourselves and with others. When our desires are not fulfilled we are unhappy.  Man often confuses fulfilment of his desires/wants as happiness. Desire is common to mankind.  For the most part, sustaining life requires that we eat.  But, over time we no longer eat only when we are hungry.  We eat for taste and entertainment. We can’t seem to get enough to truly make us happy, and most overeat to satisfy their desires and then rush to the doctor with an upset stomach.  Even when we get what we want, we want to have more. The appetite grows on what it feeds.  So, how can you find lasting happiness?  Well, don’t make it complicated, but understand the simple rules.

If we don’t determine our personal goals in life, we’ll always be searching for some unknown thing and never be truly happy.  Love is the first gift; life is the second; joy is the third; and true happiness is the fourth.  Happiness without a deep understanding only leads you back to darkness.  That is a certainty, but there are simple answers found in a deeper understanding we call joy.  There is much about happiness we recognize, and little we understand about joy; how to create a lasting happiness when we truly understand.  

To find joy in your life, live gratefully.  Gratefulness is born from joy, and true happiness is born from gratefulness. It is gratefulness that makes us truly happy.  Be grateful for those who gave us life, and for those who make it more meaningful; they are the gardeners who make our souls blossom.  Learn, but learn to truly understand life; how to resolve issues we meet in life, and learn how to make lasting commitments … love is eternal.  For that is the birthplace of joy, a deep understanding of life.  Your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

Joy a strong sense of understanding.  Joy is not something that is fleeting.  Joy is not happiness.  Happiness comes and goes.  Happiness is dependent upon your circumstances, but joy is the fruit of an abundance of understanding.  Joy is deep seated within your spirit.  It is not elation, but rather a deep understanding of all that is.  Happiness can be enjoyed as the result of that understanding.  Joy meets us where we are, but does not leave us where it found us. Take the time to understand, and then you create joy.  It is said that “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” and have it more abundantly.  We are here to experience life and gain understanding so that in our eternity, we might better understand how to solve life’s issues.

In life, there are no shortcuts to joy.  Anything that is worth pursuing requires us to suffer just a little bit.  Yearn for the vast and endless day when you find joy.  Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.  My memory is flooded with joy even though my history is unkind.  It takes time and a dash of strength to extract joy from life.  Joy does not have to be based on our circumstances.  Whether you are in pain, hard at work, failing in your relationships, or lost, joy can be yours.   

One of the greatest joys you will witness is seeing someone come in one way and leave another way, a better way.  You can witness this every day when out of that single moment when you can see someone comes from out of emptiness, and they say “Oh, now I understand”, and you can see it in their eyes, and feel it in their smile.  

When you realize that no one really knows everything they should, but they are doing the best they can according to the knowledge and abilities they have, life gets a lot easier.  You should love to work at something that  brings joy to your core.  Play like it’s your last day in life.  Run like you are chasing happiness.  Run for your family and friends that they too smile with joy in their heart.  Know who you are, and where you came from.  Be grateful for those who gave us life, and for those who gave it meaning.

Sometimes real answers begin with a lump in your throat and heaviness in your heart.  Real solutions may not satisfy your taste buds, but may cure your ills.  Reals solutions may not appeal to your appetite, but may bring lasting health.  Joy is not happiness in itself, but a deep understanding that brings happiness as a byproduct, and it always reflects truth.

And, it is certain you may have cause to step aside because of your commitment to the one person in your life.  And you hope the life they seek will bring perfect joy even without you.  Gaining joy is a heavy commitment, and can be full of hurt, but it is part of life.  Your heart knows the truth, so don’t waste a precious moment.  Life is so very short, and yet means so very much.  It is wise to find great beauty in the bits and pieces of our experiences.  Create an understanding from those tiny bits to create your joy.  The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Don’t rush through life, and miss the opportunities given to experience the joy given to you.  Joy is the deep understanding of whatever is presented to you.  Take time to understand.  Find Joy in your life, and live gratefully.  Gratefulness is born from joy, and true happiness is born from gratefulness. It is gratefulness that makes us truly happy.  Beyond that, it is joy that makes us grateful and truly happy.  It was never about being popular or winning favor or winning or being in charge.  It was more about filling my life with joy; about better understanding about everything that touched my life.

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.  It matters little why the head lies so the heart can be right.  Only if truth be known can the heart know joy.  And when you find joy, a sorrow shared is half a sorrow, a joy shared is twice a joy.  Nothing is as liberating as joy. It frees the mind and fills it with tranquility.

Become a good forgiver.  Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.  And when sorrow comes, cry and move on.  There comes a time in life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it.  Surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good.  Love those who treat you properly.  Pray for those who don’t.  Life is too short to be anything but happy because of your deep understanding.  Falling down is part of life, finding your way back up is living. I have decided to be happy, because it is good for my health and for my eternity.

Be grateful for those who make us happy; they are the gardeners who make our souls blossom.  We all want to be happy and successful.   But we live in a microwave generation, of a generation accustomed to having things at the click of a button.  That mentality is borne out by how we use our apps, computers, media and television.  Successful relationships require a different mentality and skill set.  You can’t just click a button when you don’t like what your boss/spouse/friends/co-workers say and do.  You can just flip to another channel, or app, or program, or simply jump from one relationship to another (although that is the mentality most folks use).  You have to learn how to deal with those feelings in ways that help, not hinder, the relationship.  Preventing bad relationships is just as important as supporting good ones.

Don’t educate your child to be rich.  Educate them to be filled with joy and happy because of that.  So when they grow up, they’ll know the value of things, not the price.  The purpose of life is not to be happy. The purpose of life is to matter, to be productive, to have it make some difference that you lived at all, to gain a deep understanding (joy) of what this life is all about.  

This planet has a problem, which is this: most of the people living on it are unhappy for pretty much most of the time. Many solutions have been suggested for this problem, but most of these are largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it isn’t the small green pieces of paper that were making them unhappy.  If you observe a really happy person you will find them building a boat, writing a note to someone, learning how to sing a tune, singing, educating someone, growing flowers or vegetables in their garden, or playing a sport. They will not be searching for happiness as if it were free.  People are happy to share things that work well.  Even if there are burdensome options, even if the market is flooded with noise. People will work for things they love.

Even a joyful, happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word joy or happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness and dark moments. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.  We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.  Be joyful, and gain an abundance of understanding.  You’ll be happier that you did.