Forgive my long delay in writing this newsletter! But we moved house again, and if you would like to see photos of our lovely place have a look at www.thegospelofjoy.com site at the photos to share section!
It was absolutely a blessing from God and we had no idea we were going to buy a house until we looked by chance one day on the way to another activity! It is my dream home and I never would have thought we could afford a place like this - but the Heavenly realms had other ideas! We looked on Saturday, bought on Wednesday and moved in 3 weeks later - so it has been a very busy time and I ask for your forgiveness for the delay in writing. My next move is in a box! HA HA HA!
So now to the real part of the newsletter! To ask for your help. To give you a mission - should you choose to accept it! THE GOSPEL OF JOY is finally available in book form! And my mission is to create a global joy tribe.
We have started with a site where you can visit and share your joy photos and stories that will inspire and uplift others and bring them joy. I am hoping that many of you will be happy to buy a book and then if you like it, to share it with your churches or communities or friends, who can share it with their friends so we create a world wide 'movement of joy' to counteract the growing trend of depression and hopelessness!
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK M Y FAN PAGE IS
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Gospel-of-Joy/98818999379
AND FOR TWITTER YOU GO TO
http://twitter.com/thegospelofjoy
It would be fantastic if you shared stories on the site of things that changed for you during and after you read the book; how your life became more joyful or anything that you noticed as a result of reading the book, or even from having it lie beside you at night on your bedside table! LOL Tell us of insights, inspirations and other changes within and around you!
How spectacular it would be if people read the book in their book clubs and worked together through the weekly activities; or if they started community joy groups and told us how they did it on the website; or work joy groups ; Cynthia a dear person, has started joy scrapbooking classes! She has posts on the site I believe.
Collectively we are all so much more creative than just my little brain! I bet you will come up with hundreds if not thousands of great ideas to start your own joy 'tribes' in your own homes, communities and regions. Please share them with us.
Perhaps over the dinner table tonight, you could bring up the idea and see what your children and partner say about creating a joy night in your house! Or a regular joy day - or what they would think a joy day might be! Perhaps you could all take turns (over a few weekends) of having a joy day where you spread as much joy as possible! Or perhaps you would invent ways for you to take joy to your neighbors or community or church.
Last week, I was talking to someone in the USA (cos we are now in Australia remember! and the temperature doesn't seem to drop below 70!) and she was so happy about something in her life that I said she should do a 'joy jig' - not a happy dance! Perhaps each time someone told of a joyful moment during their day, they could do a little joy jig as well! What a great habit to embed in children! And deciding what your official joy jig will be might mean hours of fun for your family - or your grandchildren!
What other ideas can you come up with to help us all spread the messages in the Gospel of Joy?
Very soon - I will be sending out a slide show we have created - well actually, Kelsey LaPerle an amazing woman in Vermont created it! - with quotes from the book, gorgeous images that mostly came from Kelsey and her lovely Mum, Brenda, and exquisite harp music created especially for it by the 'saint' who took on teaching me the harp! Linda Schneck who is about to release her first CD and trust me - you need to buy it! Her music is literally angelic!
And we hope that this slide show will be so appreciated that it will be one of those that people send all around the internet and it touches millions of people! Maybe if you like it, you can help us do that by sending it around on your twitter, facebook and the other social media sites!
If some of you would put reviews up on the Gospel of Joy site as well it would be great! And if you have ideas on places I could send the book that might be interested in marketing it or selling it, I would be grateful to do that! Or maybe you would put your (hopefully) positive comments on your blogs, Facebook or Twitter sites and refer people to www.thegospelofjoy.com? I will try to keep it updated with joyful, inspiring stories and photos - and I bet many of you will help me do that as well!
I have a feeling from Mum and the Committee that this book is to have a very strong presence on the web, and to be spread via the web, but I am not sure how to do it all!
She has sent me a wonderful web designer who set up the site. And who knows what inspirations will come from you to help me reach millions with this message of how to rediscover joy!
If 10 of you tell 10 of your friends and then they tell another 10 - soon we will reach the goal of bringing joy into millions of lives - and we will have done it together! As a tribe!
It seems to me that the current economic climate, and the feelings in the corporate world have created the perfect moment for the gift the book brings - the gift my Mum is giving us all. Strategies of hope, gratitude, generosity and love - strategies that will bring us peace, comfort and equanimity - AND success - no matter what is happening around us.
It's not just us who need to be more mindful of rediscovering our joy - it's also the corporate world! Lets try to uncover or create corporate joy! Ooooh - it's so exciting!!
I can't wait to hear what ideas you have and stories you share - please help me reach our goal - the goal of the Committee! To touch at least a million souls with this book and it's wisdom (remember I was just a 'scribe'!)
Think of all the 'joy jigging' that will be going on! Now - that's a joyful thought!
I will write sooner next time - I promise! Zooooties galore as Mum would say!
PS Reading the book in book format was fascinating! I really did not feel like I had written it at all - there were so many ideas in there that touched me and changed how I was thinking and behaving!
Anyway, it came to me that we can really only rediscover our joy when we are
- connected to God or the Divine or Spirit and
- serving others.
So this newsletter is an announcement about the book and to let you know it's here at last! And a way to start us all thinking about how we can serve others - and in bringing them joy, find ourselves bathed in it as well!
That's our mission!
Zooties!
oh - PPS! Someone sent me an excerpt from Breakfast with Fred, wonderful book that we could add to our joy library! At the end of the weekly emails they have 3 regular sections which I hope they don't mind me adapting! Here they are!
THIS MONTH CONSIDER: How will I become a joy 'carrier'?
WORDS OF WISDOM: Human beings can only truly find joy when they are serving others.
WISDOM OF THE WORD: 'This is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice ('rejoyce') and be glad in it.' Psalm 118:24
