Congregation Unitarian Universalist

Random Thoughts on Joy

*Musical Prelude: Ode to Joy

Poem:

An Immorality
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.

Ezra Pound

Opening Words: Thoughts on Joy.

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.

Lighting the Chalice:

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. ~Kahlil Gibran

Marvelous Truth, confront us at every turn, in every guise, iron ball, egg, dark horse, shadow, cloud of breath on the air,

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

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!

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

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.

- --Emily Brontë

An infant when it gazes on a light,

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,

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

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?

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:

And now we extinguish our chalice but not:
The warmth of community,
The spirit of gratitude,
Or
The fire of commitment and shared compassion of this 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.

*Hymn:    Go now in Peace     

Go now in Peace, Go now in Peace,
May the Love of God surround you
Everywhere, everywhere, You may go


Please join our mailing list now receive notices of all our services and social events
Join with us in the creation of a world that is just and compassionate, respects all sexual orientations, a planet totally free of nuclear arms and the methods of their production


New: LISTEN TO THIS WEEK'S LIBERAL RELIGIOUS HOUR ON LINE and Pod Casts

Mail us now info@uupuertorico.org

Outside of Puerto Rico

Find a Congregation Near You in US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand!
United Kingdom, Uganda
Meet, chat, find friendship and spiritual growth with other persons who identify as Unitarian Universalistas, people like you interested in an open liberal nondogmatic religion for themselves and their children.

Still can't find a Congregation Near You?
Visit the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF http://www.uua.org/clf ). Your church at home anywhere in the world! Or in the Virtual World at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life Church website