Wake up to JOY and Encourage JOY

"Sadness is the beginning of every downfall, and joy is the beginning of every rise".

 - Shlomo Carlebach *

 WAKE UP TO JOY

Joy's spontaneous comments added to calligrapher Rae (Eckman) Shagalov's FaceBook question:
"What would you recommend to people who feel they have never experienced joy?"

- Joy Krauthammer

Wake up! Sing Modah Ani. Be present as G*d paints the sun rise. Breathe in.  Go to where you see the horizon. As the Compassionate One paints the sky at the end of daylight, breathe out. Look for the sunset gold reflected on the East. View the formation of clouds and see them move. Write about it, paint it, photograph, sing it. 
In the rain, face upwards and feel the drops on your face.  Walk into a body of water and feel it.  
Feel and express GRATITUDE.  

FEEL THE JOY. It's yours. SHARE YOUR JOY.

Go into a garden. Greet a flower. TOUCH it. LOOK into its center. SMELL it. Even a weed, a dandelion. Pick a flower.  LOOK at a fruit tree, and its blossom. Pick a fruit, an orange fresh off a tree. Gaze at and PICK a growing vegetable, a tomato, and slowly TASTE IT.  PLANT a seed, or nurture a plant (see an avocado pit sprout roots and trunk). HEAR a single bird sing from its post. Watch a butterfly, or ladybug. Greet the crawling lizard or snail.  FEEL THE JOY. Watch a baby play or sleep. SMILE. Be PRESENT.  These are all gifts and blesSings.

OY, how could I forget this? and I'm a drummer. DRUM YOUR JOY!!  :)  
Blow some bubbles. If not for yourself, for someone who is not well. And give the bottle to them to hold, and to gently slowly blow bubbles with their own breath, even if in a hospice bed.

On another serious note, a true story from hours ago:
A self-proclaimed unhappy (depressive) person joyously by phone shared with me that her new friend in apartment building, the day before, had ENCOURAGED her laughs and smiles when she did-- thus supporting her. He commented on the change of her expression which she could then tune into, feel, and share the next day (to me). Be a friend, feel the joy, acknowledge joy. Grow JOY.

Thank you, dear Rae, for the opportunity to respond to your quiery and write about what I feel, from all my senses, and as the sun was rising, before I begin my chores.  I feel joy from the sharing with another, maybe even helping, and connecting with you and your chevre. BlesSings.  

PS. I feel joy when you post one of your calligraphed pages.

10.8.2013

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Rae responded:
"Well, Joy, I'd better get crackin posting more calligraphy Artnotes! Thank you Joy for your heartfelt, concrete joyifiers. Since Joy is your name, joy is your essence - and I see you've made a thorough study of it."

I am grateful that I met Rae at a gathering of women around 1995, in the home of Yehudit Eichenblatt, daughter of Liliane and Joshua Ritchie.
I purchased a Rabbi Simon Jacobson Counting the Omer book from Rae, because it had in it her illustrations, and every Omer I joyously continue to use the book.

* Read in a FB post today by friend, Jerusalem Rebbetzin Liliane Ritchie (beloved friend of Reb Shlomo, z'l)

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” 

 - Rabindranath Tagore

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