Day 1

And so it begins. Even now I am questioning why I am doing this. I already have a blog, why do I need another one? Why another one specifically about joy? What am I trying to accomplish here? Am I ready for this commitment? To be honest, I don't know if I know all of the answers, but let me try to explain them anyway, if not for your benefit than for my own clarity.

Why a blog about joy? I think this is the hardest question for me to answer. I could have a blog about anything, so why pick such a limited topic? I don't know. All I know is that when I thought of it, I was intrigued by the idea. It will be a challege no doubt, and I think I'm looking for a challenge. I want to see if I can do it, to find joy in every day life, the clothes washing (which reminds me: my laundry is done) grocery shopping, food preparing, house cleaning, christian fellowshipping, money making routine which fills my days. Overall, I would say that I am already a joyful person, so this is not going to be a blog about my journey to joy, but rather a journey of finding joy, or rather, of intentionally looking for joy.

This brings up an interesting point: joy is not universal. Something that brings me great joy might not bring you great joy, simply because we are different people. However, I believe that someone can feel joy at another person's joy, even if the situation itself wouldn't normally make them joyful. I can be joyful at my husband having a good day at the golf course, even though I don't enjoy playing golf. This leads me to what I am trying to accomplish with this blog, which is to bring you, my reader, joy through my joy, and to encourage you to live your life looking for joy as well. When I write, I find myself searching to encourage my readers in everything I say, and this blog is no exception. I am writing this for you as much as I am writing this for me.

That being said, let me tell you about a few ground rules. First of all, do not be deceived by the title of this blog. Most of you will assume that 365 Days of Joy means one year, but I am letting you know up front that there are days that I am going to miss. I'm just being honest. There are some days that I am gone from 7 o'clock in the morning until 10:00 o'clock at night. I will not be writing a blog post on those days. Otherwise, however, my intention is to write everyday, and to get to 365 posts, even if that takes longer than a year. Like any good habit, I assume it will be rocky at times, but that is my intention as stated. Secondly, I am not going to write exclusively on joy. As I was looking through quotes on joy to put on my blog, I was struck by how many of them mentioned sorrow and suffering. Don't be deceived, my friend. In order to understand true joy, you have understand true sorrow. There cannot be one without the other. We would not appreciate the sunlight if it was never night, and the same is true for joy. This is not going to be a "happy joy love with rose-colored glasses blog" where everything is happy and perfect, and there will be times when I will wrestle with the things on the other side of joy in order to understand it more fully. When I remember back at some of the moments in my life that filled me the greatest joy, I can also remember the deep pain that surrounded and led up to those moments. I will be sharing some of those moments in my blog later on, but for now just know that there will be suffering in all joy, and that joy is sweeter because of it.

So to conclude, thank you for your interest in my blog and I hope I kept you interested enough to come back tomorrow. I always welcome comments and feedback, so let me know what you think. Where this blog is headed I am not quite sure, but the good news is that the joy is in the journey. Thanks for coming along for the ride.