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Living Joyfully, revisited

December 9, 2008 – 12:26 pm

I have decided that life is too short not to enjoy.  If I have the power and the means to fix the things about my life that make me unhappy, I should use them to do it.  If I have a blessing, I should enjoy it, and be grateful for it.  I should enjoy what I have, and share what I can.  If my bed makes me uncomfortable and lowers my quality of life, and I have means to get a different bed, and there is no compelling reason not to, I should do it.  If my unorganized home makes me unhappy, I should organize it so I will be happy and like living in my home. If participating in the Christmas-Consumerism-Madness makes me unhappy, I should decline to participate. But if giving a small gift to a friend gives me joy, I should give it.  If consuming a plant-based diet does good things for my body, my outlook, and the creatures and the earth, then I should do it and be happy; but if it is meaningful to have a cafe con leche with an old friend, I should savor it.  If my overly-busy schedule stresses my mind, body, and relationships, and I have the power and freedom to cull activities; then I should cull some, even if it means making another sacrifice, and enjoy health and community.

This is a selfish philosophy, and it is nothing new, nothing that other people working toward life-balance haven’t already thought of.  And I acknowledge that in all things there needs to be balance.  I should not go around thinking that new possessions, or aesthetically pleasing homes will ultimately make me happy. Nor am I thinking that I should never deny myself things. My self should be disciplined to make reasonable, beneficial choices; beneficial, that is, not only for me, but for a greater Community.

I’m not referring to core happiness here.  Core happiness, for me, involves relationships, community, worship, faith, health, meaningful work.  I’m talking about peripheral happiness — the kind of happiness I can readily contrive, the kind of comfort I can manufacture. Even though these are not core happiness issues, I do think that making decisions towards enjoyment of (relatively) small things will compound in value and ultimately contribute to living a joyful, grateful life. And, it appears to me that I have been blessed beyond measure; and I would be a fool not to dance and sing in it.

I just seems like I have to find a place to land in the midst of all the tension that I perceive between a philosopy of living Ascetically and living Excessively; as though it is somewhat of a gray area, to which there is no absolute right place for everyone.  So I’m trying to live somewhere between, in the land of Sacrificially, Charitably, Humbly, Joyfully.