Month by Month Reflections for the Year of Joy.
Nine Goddesses to Nurture Nine Steps on the Path of Joy
This Year of Joy calendar gathers nine steps along the Path of Joy into nine months, composed of four ten-day weeks. The weeks invite you to explore joy through each of the four elements: earth, water, fire, and air, which can be experienced as metaphors – the fires of passion, for example, or the tears of sorrow – as well as richly concrete in themselves. The nine months, 360 days, come to an end on December 26, leaving five intercalary days before the Year for Joy begins again on January 1.
CLICK ON THE IMAGES OR TITLES below to read the full month’s reflection.
Joy in the WorldThe Month for Enriching a Sense of Joyful PresenceJune 10 – July 19, 2023 Why I Am HappyBy William Stafford Now has come, an easy time. I let itroll. There is a lake somewhereso blue and far nobody owns it.A wind comes by and a willow listensgracefully. I hear all this, every […]
The Month for Joyful Acceptance and AcknowledgementMay 1 to June 9, 2023 Life will bring you pain all by itself.Your responsibility is to create joy.–Milton Erickson This is the month for practicing joy by creating it. Picture this scene from a favorite creation story. It gives us clues about the process. I imagine it like […]
The Month for Joyful AwarenessMarch 22 – April 30, 2023 Jumping for Joy Waking up this morning, I see the blue sky I join my hands in thanks for the many wonders of life,for having twenty-four brand new hours. The sun is rising on the forest and so is my awareness. –Thich Nhat Hanh
JOYFUL BELIEFS 2023The Month for Believing in Joy, February 10 to March 21, 2023 I cannot believe that the inscrutable universeturns on an axis of suffering;surely the strange beauty of the world mustsomewhere rest on pure joy. –Louise Bogan These forty precious days tease us into springtime. In addition to the daily weather fantasias, our […]
A Month for Sourcing Ourselves in JoyJanuary 1 to February 9, 2023 Welcome to this new year and the joyful month of seeking, finding, and celebrating the thousand and one sources of joy. Here is a playful possibility Imagine this scene: Animals, birds, angels, and other creatures gather together with the idea of singing praise—each […]
A TIME FOR GREAT JOY Birthdays of the Gods and Goddesses of JoyDecember 27 to 31 Don’t HesitateIf you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give into it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never […]
The Month for Serving and Sharing JoyfullyNovember 17 – December 26, 2022 To serve is beautiful, but only if it’s done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind.–Pearl S. Buck Photo by Christiane Meunier This month’s message is comprised of wonderful quotes from wise people. With every act of giving we […]
The Month for Joyful TransformationOctober 8 – November 16, 2022 “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was […]
The Month of Remembering JoyAugust 29 to October 7, 2022A Tale of Two Rivers All I feel is riversand the current is my life force.–Robert Vivian Embracing the rivers of joyful memory this month can provide such playfulness, such courage, and such resilience that we find ourselves willing to acknowledge, and even […]
The Month of Joyful DedicationJuly 20 – August 28, 2022 Clearly discover your work and attend to it with all your heart.–From the Buddha’s Dhammapada, translated by Anne Bancroft Welcome to a time for rededicating ourselves – joyfully – to the work of fulfilling our life purpose, attending to it with grace and gratitude. Our […]