The Tamarack Institute focuses on building capacity and a culture for community and community engagement. I'm signed up for one of their weekly newsletters on deepening community. It's not your traditional newsletter. Instead you get weekly quotes, thoughts, etc. to help inspire and fuel you on your own path to deepening community. I've really been enjoying them thus far and wanted to share the initial email you get when you sign up.
In our society, we are obsessed with happiness – pursuing happiness at all costs. We often say to each other, “well, as long as it makes you happy.” Happiness is a wonderful gift! However, it is a temporary state, fleeting.
Joy is more permanent. It is a constant state of being. Not one that is moved and swayed, but is instead grounded and steadfast.
Here is the quotation that inspired Deepening Community:
“Our most natural state is joy. It is the foundation for love, compassion, healing and the desire to alleviate suffering.” –Deepak Chopra
What makes you feel grounded? Alive? Fully open to possibilities?
Maybe it is a person in your life. Maybe it is something you love to do. Maybe it is a place where you feel like all is right in the world. Maybe it’s a choice you make in how you view the things around you.
Write what makes you feel joyful on a sticky note and put it somewhere you look often: the bathroom mirror, next to your bed, on your desk, on your car’s dashboard. Keep it there for the week and each time you look at it, feel joy arise in you.
What brings you joy? It can be difficult sometimes to distinguish between the things that we are pursuing to make ourselves happy and those that will bring us sustained joy. For me it's that remembering everyone is human. Personally this shows up by flexing my empathy and compassion muscles everyday. Not just for others, but for myself too.
Being a Force for Good 