Daily Signet

Ride out your storms with joy. Sacred journey. These riches never depend only on what you have been given, but just as much on what you make of what you have been given. I dance the moment and make it live.                                                              

William M Boast

On This Day…

Alexander Pope born 1688 in England, died 1744: satirical poet, translator of Homer
Works: The Rape of the Lock, An Essay on Man, The Dunciad
Quotes: “How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. Each pray’r  accepted and each wish resign’d.” “To err is human; to forgive, divine.”

Daily Signet

How is joy different from happiness? I believe that joy is an attitude or a condition of the heart that we carry with us throughout life even through tragedy, crisis, sorrow and pain. It is a stabilizer when we feel we are losing our balance. This does not mean that we don’t experience fully the sorrows and struggles of life; however, dancing through life with joy in our hearts makes the journey easier and allows us to awaken to beauty and wisdom. On the other hand, happiness seems to be dependent upon happening or expectations of what we would like to have happen. Knowing joy is endlessly more important than knowing about joy.  

Barbara Dalberg

Daily Signet

Joy is found in the relation….Without relationship, there is no joy. Relation in its truest sense is a dialogue. This dialogue of time and place stimulates our senses and awakens us to joy.

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

Lailat al Quadr  (Night of Decree, Night of Measures):  Islamic remembrance of the night Muhammad received the first verses of the Koran

Daily Signet

Let me tell you about Monkey Golf. The story goes that about a decade ago, in India, near a temple where monkeys abound, a huge, expensive and very exquisite golf course was built. Fit for kings. But when the kings came to play golf and hit their balls true or not, no matter what the lie, whether on the fairways, in the rough, the sand or the greens, the monkeys would dash out, grab each ball, run off and drop the ball wherever their wont. Of course, that ruined the game the kings intended to play. How can you play SERIOUS golf when the monkeys do what they want with your balls? So the kings gave up the game of SERIOUS golf and started playing monkey golf. Wherever a monkey dropped the ball, the king laughed and played the ball from there. And immediately the game became joyous because, after all, what else can you do but laugh at your plans until you fall down, crying with joy. And of course, people became masters at golf because they got to play many situations they hadn’t been prepared for. And, over time, Monkey Golf became a great joy. Joy, always joy, a world filled with joy.                

Ben Leichtling

Daily Signet

When I think of my favorite songs that I listen to when I am in “a funk,” I realize how many of them are songs about joy and songs about love—and how many of them use both words in their titles….Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Music…will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain joy alive in you.” As I have found sustenance, life-changing and life-giving moments through music, especially through my playlist of favorites, may you each come to find your “playlist of favorites”—whether it is in music, or in reading, or in meditating, cooking, writing, cleaning or praying. Unite joy with your love. May it lead you to the best of you where you become one with all that is human and with all that is divine.  

Earl Behnke