| When Life Stinks, Find Your Joy! |
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| Issue No. 21 |
January 23, 2009 |
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SEND ME JOY! |
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Kelly Epperson
PO Box 2324
Loves Park, IL 61131
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CLICK HERE to Subscribe to JOY!
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Greetings!
The weeks go by fast! Tuesday was a big day. Inauguration Day AND the kids went back to school after five days off.
I'm crunched for time (deadlines, deadlines, dealines) so this joy letter will be chock-full of quotes. (What exactly is a chock?)
Today, whatever may annoy, The word for me is Joy, just simple Joy. - John Kendrick Bangs
from reader Mary Dyreson, Freeport, IL I love hearing from all of you. Thanks for the joy.
Words to ponder:
There are two ways of spreading the light:
to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
Edith Wharton
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One kind word can warm three winter months.
~Japanese proverb |
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Joy = Music |
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Lyrics from one of my all-time favorite songs:
Come dancing,
Come on sister, have yourself a ball.
Don't be afraid to come dancing,
It's only natural.
~~The Kinks
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| Joy = Women Helping Women |
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| Did you know... |
I can hang a pretzel off my nose....
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| Joy = Peace |
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to
entertain a thought without accepting it.
--Aristotle |
| Joy Droppings |
| What brings me joy lately?
* pizza and beer
* wine chats at Cru
* celebrations at the Coronado
* Chicks of the Trade
* daydreaming/nightdreaming
FOREVER IN LOVE WITH CALVIN AND HOBBES....
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| Joy =Muppet Wisdom |
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye." ~~Miss Piggy
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| Joy = You |
BLUE BIRTHDAY SHOTS TO: (but not Haley -- sorry must be 21!)
Ryan B, Rockford, IL
Christy B, Kansas City, KS  Haley H, Bartlett, IL
help--who am I leaving out??
(New JOY seekers/spreaders: Let me know your bday. At the end of each month, I draw a name and one birthday person gets a joy present in the mail.)
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| Joy = Books & Movies |
Book Pick This Week = Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont
Flick Pick This Week = old episodes of The West Wing, writer Aaron Sorkin (love him) |
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| Quote Junkie |
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Better to be without logic than without feeling.
~Charlotte Bronte
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| Joy=Speaking Gigs |
THE LOST ART OF LOVE LETTERS:
Feb 2 - Womanspace
Feb 13 - Center for Learning in Retirement
Feb 18 - Rock Valley College
Feb 16 - PROGRAM SPEAKER, ROCKFORD NETWORK OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN
Feb 18 - PROGRAM SPEAKER, NATIONAL ACTIVE AND RETIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION
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| Joy=Fine Food, Fine Wine, Fine Friends |
Dinner at Art & Elaine's....
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| Joy=Great Ones |
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Martin Luther King, Jr had many quotable words:
I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
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| Joy = English Majors |
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T-shirt on my wish list:
English Major
You Do The Math
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Joy = Obligatory Sales Pitch |
Books. When Life Stinks, It's Time to Wash the Gym Clothes.
Cards. Pretty, pretty, pretty.
Shirts: C'est Bon and joy*us!
More surprises in the works..... |
| Joy =French Lesson |
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L'espoir fait vivre.
Hope keeps you alive. |
| Joy=Just Do It |
"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." -Helen Keller
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| Joy=Nia |
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My friend Debby Gaines is a Nia instructor:
"One of my dreams is to help people connect to their joy- feel comfortable with their body and remain present in the moment. Every body has different needs and knows what it needs when allowed the space and freedom to seek it.
This year I will be offering several Nia "play shops." During these play shops I will talk about the some of the principles of Nia. We will dance, play and meditate. I will offer my regular weekly classes too and be setting up some Nia Jams, usually held on a Friday or Saturday evening, full of fun, friends and dancing!"
January:
Noon on Mondays at Pranayama yoga studio
8:30am-9:30am on Tuesdays at Womanspace
5:30pm-6:30pm on Thursdays at Womanspace
THIS SATURDAY- Nia Playshop at Pranayama yoga studio, Rockford, - JOY OF MOVEMENT - 10am-Noon $20; email dancingsupergoddess@yahoo.com or just show up! |
| Joy =YOU |
PERSPECTIVE = Observing "it's a beautiful day" when it's clear and 20� following a few days of -20�. That must be how someone down and out feels when they get a small break.
Bill D, Plainfield, IL
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist
adjusts the sails." - William Arthur Ward
Jim B, Herscher, IL
"What gets in the way of truly experiencing joy? Trying to be somebody we're not." - Thelma Wellsy
Debbie W, Rockton, IL
Dream your dream. Follow your heart. Imagine. Listen to the wind. Drink sunsets. Be free. Let the wonder never cease. Believe. Wish on EVERY star. Create adventure. Be Kind."
-Debbie Coulter
Minta G, Greenville, SC
JOY = sitting on the couch with a cup of hot tea on a frigid winter night, leafing through my seed catalog that came in the mail as if it were the best romance novel - dreaming of how to build a new perennial garden this spring....
Michelle S, Freeport, IL
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| Joy = Be All You Can Be |
We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying
to be excellent. --President Barack Obama
From 200 people in backyard Iowa to 2 million people in DC....
(that's me leaning on the swingset at the left)
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...tune playing at the moment....
oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream.... kashmir, led zeppelin
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love and joy and peace and hugs..... joyfully,
xx kelly
The Talmud says, "A quotation at the right moment is like bread to the famished."
I'm always hungry for the right words.
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