virgin islands scene

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 

 

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Joy of existence

Enjoy today to the fullest extent possible, but not so much that you compromise tomorrow. Enjoy yourself in every imaginable way, but not in ways that depend on harming anyone else.

It is not selfish to engage in joyful experiences. What’s selfish is to deny joy to others, or to your future self, merely to serve the expedience of the current moment.

Neither your situation nor the world’s situation has to be perfect, or even adequate, for you to experience joy. Genuine joy is not something you take from life but is something you’re able to give that improves all of life.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that a lack of joy in your life is anyone’s fault, including your own. Realize instead that joy is your potential, obligation, responsibility, and a pointer to your highest level of fulfillment.

Joy bears little resemblance to mere pleasure. Joy fulfills, engages, and energizes your deepest values, your integrity, your body, mind, spirit, and soul.

Seek to be a source, a conduit, and a grateful repository for the joy of existence. Know that in every circumstance there is life-affirming joy to be lived and shared.

— Ralph Marston

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