Over the holiday season, Scott and I had a chance to meet many new customers, form new collaborations, and begin friendships with individuals that we had not met prior to the end of 2021.
But, something we noticed was that there was a trend that started from our Holiday Shop over Thanksgiving Weekend to the eve of New Year’s Eve.
Scott had designed many new items in the shop, from rustic conversion boards, to engraved charcuterie boards, to scrabble tiles with individual letters.
Although many different items were purchased, the one that was repeatedly ordered were these three letters “JOY.”
We had a dear friend who said it had been a rough year, and she needed to choose Joy this holiday season. We had another customer who ordered 1 set and then ordered 3 more. She said this is what her family needed this year. We had a family member who told us that joy was what she was choosing this year. She was going to place them in her kitchen window to remind herself daily, that we can all choose to live joyfully.
When Scott first made these scrabble tiles, I thought we would have Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Let it Snow, and all of the kitchy holiday sayings. Little did I know that these very simple pieces of wood were going to take on a new meaning for so many individuals.
I also noticed that I have written a couple of blog posts this past season about Joy. So, as we approach the New Year, I want to embrace joyful living. I researched quotes that centered around Joy and here are some that resonated with me.
You don’t have the power to make life fair but you do have the power to make life joyfully.
-E. Pratiwi
The greater the level of calmness of our mind, the greater our peace of mind, the greater our ability to enjoy a happy and joyful life.
-Dalai Lama
Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it everyday.
-Henri Nouwen
A joyful life is not a floodlight of joy.
A joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude, inspiration, and faith.
-Brene Brown
I dug a little deeper and began to browse various Ted Talks. There were 12 Ted Talks focused solely on joyful living, and a plethora of Ted Talks about mindfulness and positivity.
If the human spirit is aching so much for joy, I wonder why we have a hard time allowing ourselves to feel this emotion. Many of us feel pain, feel sadness, and feel defeat, but it is much harder for us to delight in the feeling of joy. As a parent, we are always telling our children that they are in control of their actions and their words.
As adults, I think we forget that saying, We have the power to choose daily how we want to feel, what we want to listen to or tune out, and how we will react to life’s difficult moments.
It’s almost 2022. I truly hope that this year is filled with triumph, delight, and joy in the simple moments of living.
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