It starts with play

For some people, the word play may instantly bring to mind pictures of children. Sandboxes, tricycles, GI Joe, Barbie, Lego, giggling, crying, band-aids, juice boxes, the ice cream truck. Possibly due to the fact that my kids are nearly grown, playing does not bring those particular images to mind. The word play causes me to think about basketball, painting(art), make-up & hair (for hours!), soccer, travel, computer time, pajamas. I equate play with joy. My status on Facebook today was the word JOY, followed by the definition.

*JOY~ Date: 13th century ~ 1a : the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : delight~ 1b : the expression or exhibition of such emotion : gaiety ~ 2 : a state of happiness or felicity : bliss ~ 3 : a source or cause of delight ( that is my focus today!)

Looking up the word joy and reading the definition actually brought a noticeable lift to my countenance. It made me think? If merely looking at a word can cause a change in ones demeanor, what could reading a phrase or an entire book do? In my house, it is not uncommon for me to have 5 or 10 books on the go at one time. My bedside table is stacked high with past, present and future reading material. Hmmmmm, what have I been reading lately? Am I adding to prior positive input? Or have I unwittingly been depleting my base camp of it's staples? Staples being the foundation of joy.

Every time I read something it has the potential to do 2 things: build up or tear down. At least in my limited thinking that is how it seems.

Using that little revelation as a directive for choosing future reading material seems like a good decision. Simple, but good.

Choosing what is sent into that incredible micro storage called my brain is not always that simple. While watching television I often find that images flash across the screen before I have a chance to put the filter in place(filter = changing the channel), hence, unrequested images are logged and filed. Did I mention how much the storage fees are? Depending upon which radio station you listen to, there may be very little in the way of filtered information being sent into your storage unit. Media; music, books, news, magazines, they are everywhere. Unfiltered for the most part.

It starts getting too big somehow. The filtering, monitoring, screening, choosing, storing, tossing..... it is out of control. Why bother?

My thought is that everything that I do manage to filter or screen, is one less thing that I will have to make a decision about. Keep it? Toss it? Life has enough decisions that need to be made without creating extra ones.

Choose JOY!



(*Merriam Webster)