The Origin of the Happy Book Blog
A week before I left for college, my best friend gave me a notebook. Besides the words “Happy Book” scrawled across the cover, for all appearances it seemed a very simple gift. Little did I know what impact it would have on the next four years of my life.
The purpose of the notebook was simple: write down the thoughts, experiences and emotions that had brought a smidgen of joy to my day. In the beginning, I saw that book as an assignment; something I had to fill before the year was finished. I jotted down lists highlighting everything from freshmen infatuation to the first flurries of winter. Over time, though, as my life was challenged with heartache, my brother’s substance abuse, my best friend’s diagnosis with cancer, my college friend’s death, I saw that book not as an assignment but as a lifeline.
Sometimes the entries in that notebook were blurred with tears as I furiously scribbled down the silver lining to every storm cloud smothering my life’s sky. Sometimes I wanted to rip out the pages and ball them up like a fist, destroying that which had once brought joy to my heart now diminished by distance, disease and death.
But in the end, I never could. Those short, numbered entries were a testament that — despite trials and tribulations — someday, somehow the shards of sun would eventually spear those clouds covering my sky, causing them to wither and melt away, and I would be presented with a choice: cling to those things which had once brought joy, or become bitter and barren because they existed no longer.
I chose to cling to joy, and you know what? the grace resided in the fact that there were always new, happy things to record: my first tangible taste of love; my brother’s rehabilitation; my best friend’s successful bone marrow transplant, and those friendships I had gained through losing one so dear to me.
The purpose of The Happy Book Blog is for you, dear reader, to have a place where you can step away from the hustle and bustle of life and read about something that can bring joy to your heart. Many times my posts are not momentous, flowery or even overtly cheerful. My simple goal for each is to add a splash of technicolor optimism in this world turned to gray.
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Jolina
The below comments were sent to me via email. Anyone wishing to send further ones can just post them through this section. Thanks a ton; keep the happiness flowing! 🙂
Every day is a brand new day to start afresh.
-Joshua Madison Miller
(Joshua happens to be my favorite–and only–big brother.)
Jolina,
This paragraph is on my refrigerator and has transformed my outlook:
ATTITUDE
by Chuck Swindoll
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes!”
-Chris Burke
Anonymous
LOVE