Choose Joy

Simple words I read off of an Instagram feed that I’m sure I’ve read before, but they sank in today. Without a moment’s notice, it was like a jolt of understanding; a surge of grace. We have the capacity to find and choose joy amidst the tempest. And let me tell you, it’s been quite the tumultuous time.

The last couple of months have been a whirlwind. Between work, family, and personal life (all inclusive of friends, the gym, prayer, mass, planning for the future, etc) I have definitely lost sight of my opportunities to choose joy. I will be the first to admit that joy is not my go-to emotion. I would rather worry myself into next year or remain preoccupied by the past in an attempt to avoid my crippling fear of the present. If you think you aren’t afraid of the present, then let me also be the first to welcome you to the reality of our current culture. Most of us would rather work ourselves into oblivion than deal with our current struggles. Or worse, we may be so afraid that life is actually turning out well that we would rather go about our days “foreboding joy.” We may say to ourselves, “Life is getting too good, it couldn’t possibly stay this way. Something bad has got to be on its way. My life has always been too tragic for it to all of the sudden be this good.” I have found myself stuck in these thought patterns. In those moments, we become more keen to what is going wrong and fixate on it. We end up creating the worst case scenarios we so dreaded.

So what do we do? What helps bring us out of those moments where we would rather believe that we are destined for a life of misery? A little bit of a hop, skip, and slide.

Before even reading the words “choose joy,” I was listening to the cover of “Hammer” by SoCal Vocals as I walked out of the gym. (I love cover songs). Without thinking twice, I started to dance outside. Now let me tell you, I was out of step and probably looked a little foolish, but there was sheer joy. I had decided that my to do list didn’t matter in that moment. The past was the past. My future is not in my hands. All I had was that moment; and nothing else mattered (in a good way). We all think too much. We are all overly critical. We all analyze everything and once we are done breaking it apart we synthesize, and put it back together in an endless loop of lunacy. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being stuck in the past and worried about the future. So my solution? It’s elementary my dear Watson. Choose joy.

Ps. Anyone who reads this is at liberty to punch me in the gut if I am being a crab and complaining about life ? #accountability