Today has been (yet again!) bleak, dreary, and COLD – that damp kind of cold that permeates bones & makes misbehaving joints creak & ache.  Melting snowy landscapes outside look like oozing meringues…

…whereupon it’s easy to fall into the blahs, blues and whatever doldrums drag our spirits down. down. down.   It’s Lent (& there’s no chocolate doldrums-buster available allowable at this time.)

So, on this dreary day, here’s a quote for our minds (& droopy spirits) to munch on:

“The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”  Marcel Proust

Altho a warm, sunny landscape would be a most welcome change, methinks more prayers are needed from this cracked clay pot for new eyes (of the spiritual variety) to capture joy… well, maybe not ‘capture’ but engage joy? Like moving into 5th gear in a car?  Or engaging hyper-drive in a spaceship? — to engage in a joy drive that skips out of the doldrums dimension & into the starry sky?

hmmmn.

…looking at things with new eyes (with a little help from my friends…)

“Joy is the echo of God’s life in us.”   Blessed Columba Mormion O.S.B.

…Let’s engage God’s echo into an operational joy-drive to lift our hearts out of the dreary-day-doldrums (or dreary life doldrums – whatever!)

It’s a choice! A discipline!  … choosing joy.   (You can read my take on joy by clicking here -’twas written in Advent awhile back, but joy is joy is joy — is JOY.)

Just ‘sayin. Not always easy when our bodies (& hearts) ache, but with God’s help – joy is an option.

grace, peace & operational joy-drives

      Virginia : )

p.s. while reading a blog of Ignatius Press favorite 2014 book reviews awhile back, this made it into my journal (disclaimer – i actually like fruitcake!)

“I don’t understand fruitcake. Fruit, good. Cake, great.  Fruitcake, nasty crap.”

(from Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan)

Just had to squeeze a little holy-hilarity into this post.  Joyful ending & all that (i’m still laughing – even though read this weeks ago!)