Choosing Joy

Today, I was reminded once again to "choose joy". I receive a daily on-line meditation (HenriNouwen.org) and as I was catching up on my emails, I read this meditation:

Choosing Joy:

Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it. What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice

I truly believe that each and every one of us can choose our response to adversity... we can mope and feel sorry for ourselves.... blame others or ourselves... or we can choose joy. I found myself feeling sorry for myself this past chemo - not something I do a lot and consciously try to avoid as I don't like the downward spiral it leads me into. But I found myself indulging in a bit of a pity party as I was feeling so low. Now, don't think I'm some sort of Polly Anna - I'm not going to be shouting the joys of chemo anytime soon. But what I can do is choose to look at my chemo as something that is keeping me alive and that will, God willing, heal me. I can be thankful that I live in a country that has access to good medical care (as much as we complain about it in Canada, it really IS good). So that is my goal for this week.... choose joy wherever possible.