Joy for Beginners

After posting on this book a few weeks ago, my aunt recommended I read another book by the same author. I love recommendations, so I just read it this afternoon.

I'll admit, to start I was a little hesitant, as the book is written in the same style as the first - one chapter dedicated to each character. It took me a little bit longer to get into this book, but once I got a grasp of the message, I loved it.

While reading this book I realized, there are stories that emotionally just drag you through the ringer. They pull you it, they make your gut wrench as you read of the unimaginable sorrow a character experiences, and you are just so grateful for your life at the end. We've all read them (we've posted about some of them on this blog.) I read them - they make me cry, they drag my heart through the ringer. But I don't necessarily leave all the better after reading the story.

I know why it is I like this author. She writes how I feel. She doesn't tell you the intimate, deep secrets. She doesn't get all gushy and mushy and pull at your heart strings. She tells it how it is. She tells you the story. She doesn't add whipping cream and cherries and nuts on top, she just spells it out. I like that. It is honest, it is believable, it is straight forward.

I especially enjoyed this story because unlike books like "Eat, Pray, Love" - I think she is telling you that you can find joy in the life that you have. Regardless of the hand you are dealt, divorced, single, widow, cancer survivor, lost a loved one to cancer, unhappy - look at where your live it now, and make it a happy one. Find the joy in the journey. Find what makes you happy now - and you don't have to go far to find it. You don't have to take a year off from life to search for it. It may take a year to develop the true joy, but it is in rediscovering what makes you happy, and I think that is important - the "re". We don't have to find an all new thing, an all new hobby, an all new person. We've all been happy. What was it that made us happy? How can we bring that back?

It isn't a self help book, no. But it is a book filled with lessons we can take to heart.

I also realized that three of the last books I've read are all set in the NW. Being a NW girl, that might also have something to do with why I enjoy them. The authors write to my way of thinking, my way of living. How could they go wrong?

Enjoy.