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Congregation Unitarian Universalist
Random Thoughts on Joy, Happiness and Contentment
The Things We should Be Grateful For
Even when the date is not Thanksgiving
*Musical Prelude:
Poem:
Ezra Pound
Lighting the Chalice:
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. ~Kahlil Gibran
Dwell in our crowded hearts, our steaming bathrooms, kitchens full of things to be done, the ordinary streets.
Thrust close your smile that we know you, terrible joy.
Untitled, Denise Levertov (#500)
It is a comely fashion to be glad
Joy is the grace we say to God.
-- Socrates
Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne No human feeling can ever be so appalling as joy. -- Victor Hugo
And I have loved thee, Ocean! And my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles onward; from a boy
I wantoned with thy breakers, …
And trusted to thy billows far and near,
And laid my hand upon thy mane, - as I do here.
- Lord Byron He who bends to himself a Joy
Doth the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the Joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sunrise.
William Blake
Happiness is two kinds of ice cream, finding your skate key, telling time.
Happiness is learning to whistle, tying your shoe for the very first time.
Happiness is playing the drum in you own school band.
and Happiness is walking hand in hand.
Happiness is five different crayons, knowing a sectet, climbing a tree.
Happiness is finding a nicke, catching a firefly, setting him free.
Happiness is being a alone every now and then.
and Happiness is coming home again.
Happiness is morning and evening, daytime and nighttime too.
For Happiness is any one and anything at all theat is loved by you.
Happiness is having a sister, sharing a sandwich, getting along.
And Happiness is those who sing with you.
Happiness is morning and evening, daytime and nighttime too.
For happiness is anyone and any thing at all that is loved by you.
William Henry Davies Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way. ~Douglas Pagels How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping.
William Shakespeare Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy -- Kahlil Gibran Teach me half the gladness that thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness from my lips would flow,
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
- Psalm 30
Happiness is never stopping to think if you are. ~Palmer Sondreal
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner. ~Colette
Happiness is a form of courage. ~Holbrook Jackson
The labour we delight in physics pain -- - William Shakespeare
- --Emily Brontë
An infant when it gazes on a light,
A miser filling his most hoarded chest,
Feel rapture; but not such true joy are reaping
As they who watch o'er what they love while sleeping.
-- Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron), Don Juan (canto III, st. 196)
Pleasure is spread through the earth
In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.
-- William Wordsworth, 1806
Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness. ~Robertson Davies
Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. ~Fyodor Dostoevsky
The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. ~Charles L. Morgan
I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to fourteen. ~Abd-El-Raham
Joys are not the property of the rich alone: nor has he lived ill, who at his birth and at his death has passed unnoticed.- Horace (65-8 B.C.)
If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day. ~W. Beran Wolfe
When men are rightly occupied, their amusement grows out of their work, as the colour-petals out of a fruitful flower. --.-John Ruskin
Grief may be joy misunderstood. -- - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Discussion Theme: Joy Copyright Congregation Unitarian Universalist of Puerto Rico Domestic Non-Profit Corporation #6268
There are published studies that optimistic people live longer and that true happiness comes with meaning. Our fourth principle encourages us toward a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, will this lead to joy?
Aristotle said virtue isn’t virtue unless you choose it. Positive psychology is not only about maximizing personal happiness but also about embracing civic engagement and spiritual connectedness, hope and charity. How often do we think about what makes life worth living?
Closing circle of hands: (Holding hands or link arms as you read the closing words together)
Extinguish Chalice:
*Hymn:
Ode to Joy
An Immorality
Opening Words:
Thoughts on Joy.
Sing we for love and idleness,
Naught else is worth the having.
Though I have been in many a land,
There is naught else in living.
And I would rather have my sweet,
Though rose-leaves die of grieving,
Than do high deeds in Hungary
To pass all men's believing.
IS JOY POSSIBLE IN THE HERE-AND-NOW?
My answer is a definite YES! But it can't be created artificially or
on
command. Joy happens when people put a stop to their heady attitudes
towards
one another and become genuinely feeling human beings. But there is a
difference between emotion and feeling. Everyone is emotional, but
feeling people
are capable of engaging in real dialogue, in which heart, body and mind
work
harmoniously in a dynamic process of creative expression and feedback.
Marvelous Truth, confront us at every turn, in every guise, iron ball, egg, dark horse, shadow, cloud of breath on the air,
Choir Anthem: Happiness
words and music by Clark Gesner
I'll make my Joy a secret thing,
My face shall wear a mask of care;
And those who hunt a Joy to death,
Shall never know what sport is there!
A real spirit of rebelliousness is that one that looks for the happiness in this life. " -Henrik Ibsen
Bliss like thine is bought by years
Dark with torment and with tears.
A child the moment when it drains the breast,
A devotee when soars the Host in sight,
An Arab with a stranger for a guest,
A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,
Positive psychology brings the same attention to positive emotions (happiness, pleasure, well-being) that clinical psychology has always paid to the negative ones. There is a distinction between feeling good, which according to positive psychologists only creates a hunger for more pleasure — they call this syndrome the hedonic treadmill — and doing good, which can lead to lasting happiness. Do you think this is true? Why?
And now we extinguish our chalice but not:
The warmth of community,
The light of hope, hope for change that brings new blessings into our lives and the lives of those around us continues to burn brightly, we carry hope in our hearts until we are together again.The spirit of gratitude,
Or
The fire of commitment and shared compassion of this community.
Go now in Peace
Go now in Peace, Go now in Peace,
May the Love of God surround you
Everywhere, everywhere, You may go
