You Choose

Jon Acuff posted the below on his IG account today.

I glanced at it earlier but went back to read it again more thoroughly.

because when people talk about joy,

my ears perk.

A quarter of a century+ ago,

Mom told that joy is a choice...

just like anger and resentment are choices

This rocked my world...

the whole concept of being able to

have a choice about how I felt

it was new, revelational in fact (especially at the time).

I was so used to saying (and comfortable with saying)...

"He made me so angry."

"She made me this"...

"They made me that"...

"If it weren't for so-in-so, I wouldn't feel this way.."

Mom honed in on the fact that when it comes down to how we feel,

no one can actually make us feel one way or another

we aren't forcibly made to wear the hat of anger, jealousy, bitterness or hatred

--or any emotion for that matter

We are the author of our own feelings.

We are our own entity.

We are in control

We choose.

It's as simple as that...

simple doesn't mean easy

It takes practice to remember that we have a choice

We've been conditioned differently

It takes putting into practice the process of moving our negative emotion

into the positive

it's a transition

every feeling counts

but one or the other is not cement

and we get to take ownership of where we are in our feelings at any given time and place

we pick and choose where we spend our time and energy

Being angry is okay...

it's necessary when we feel it

we decide how long we stay there, though

no one else has that power unless we give it to them and then we've made a different kind of choice

but like it says above,

"...joy tends to last longer and leaves you better in its wake."

do we move from the hollow space of anger?

or do we move into the wake of joy?

I Choose Joy