La Joie de Vivre

Who'd have thought I'd be getting some wisdom from Jessica Simpson. (I DO love her, and think she is one of the sweetest things ever, but I didn't know she'd get me thinking.)

So she's got a show on VH1, The Price of Beauty, and it's interesting to say the least. In different exotic locals she looks into what that culture perceives as beautiful. And then the flip side where someone went too far for beauty. I guess we Americans aren't the only ones capable of going to extremes.

While in France she is turned onto the phrase, "la joie de vivre"...Joy of living. Wikipedia has this to say, "can be a joy of conversation, joy of eating, joy of anything one might do… And joie de vivre may be seen as a joy of everything, a comprehensive joy, a philosophy of life, a worldview."

I aspire to this...I dream of this...I lie and say I live this. I do my best, but often come up short. I so many times forget that there is so much joy to be found in living. It's easy to find the joy in the big things, but my goal is to extract all the joy from even the most simple moment.


Por ejemplo...
When I wake up before my alarm goes off I get pissed for missing an extra fifteen minutes of sleep. Instead I should be happy to know my body is rested, ready to start the day, and joyful to start the day in such a peaceful way.

The phrase is about the joy of living; not the joy of life. I want to be very specific about this. Enjoying life seems so passive. Enjoying living is an action. A conscience decision I must make every day. An active process of extracting the happiness from everything I do. Hopefully, I'll get get better; for now I'm gonna go find the joy in a bubble bath.