Nope, not joy, just plain cheerfulness. I’m surprised because a simple choice to be cheerful really does make a difference. It doesn’t necessarily come from a deep place of joy or anything else profound, but choosing to put a smile on my face, not be grumpy at the grocery store and just make the most of the good stuff certainly makes my day (and everyone else’s) go a whole lot better. You don’t even have to feel particularly cheerful to start out. Like scales, it’s something you can practice, and the more you do it, the easier it gets and the better you sound. Like the old proverb goes, A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Cheerfulness is just a nicer way to live.

~lg

A pumpkin spice candle burns next to my desk. Cold autumn rains wash away the last of the yellow leaves, drum drumming on the roof as background music to my writing. The cat has resumed her sphinx position on the arm of the couch. It is as close as I let her get to the scattered notes on my desk. (In truth, she would be satisfied with nothing less than sprawling out across the keyboard.) The dishes sit dirty on the counter, but I am focused on this screen, imagining a world half a lifetime away, typing words which bring passions and pain out of the past and into my consideration.

~lg

When I have finished writing the book I am currently working on (hopefully the first draft will be complete within the next 2 weeks!), these are the books I’m looking forward to reading. They are either books I have bought but haven’t got around to reading yet, or textbooks I only got the chance to skim through at Wycliffe 🙂

• For the Life of the World (Alexander Schmemann) – skimmed through most of this for a systematic theology course, interested in the sacramental theology
• At the Heart of the Gospel: Suffering in the Earliest Christian Message (by Wycliffe professor Ann Jervis) – because who doesn’t wonder about this?
• The Way to Christ (Jacob Boehme) – apparently this was the key to a pneumatology course I took… should have read it a little more closely!
• On the Incarnation (St. Athanasius) – just because I loved it and it’s a good Christmas read
• Mysterious Apocalypse (Arthur Wainwright) – on the way from abebooks!
• The Selected Journals of L. M. Montgomery Vol. IV – fascinating look into the life of Canada’s most famous authoress

This should make for some good winter reading ahead!

~lg