Find your bliss

A few years ago, my childhood friend, Bobby Drashin, spent a lot of time encouraging me to "find your bliss".

I kept thinking about that as I thought about my 2014 resolutions.  I did some research.  The concept seemed to be someone "self-centered".  That wouldn't work.  That's not what I want to be. 

So I kept digging.  And I found a definition of bliss - perfect happiness; great joy; blessedness. . .

Hum...maybe that is what I want for 2014...

Really I could have a year just like the one that's passed and be okay.  New friendships came along; old friendships were renewed.  I'm published in magazines, I'm planning events, my house is being redecorated. 

 

But if I'm going to find my bliss in 2014, here's how I think I'll do it.

          *I am going to be the kind of friend that Isaida Sanchez has been to me.  All she did was "over hear" that I needed a crystal punch ladle and it was mine.  Never mind that we had only just met that morning.  And who knew that my need for a ladle was the beginning of a great friendship?  Or the kind of friend, Virginia Jefferies Pillsbury is  - she is always so excited to see me.  It just warms my heart.  Renee Skinner is like that too.

I have found that practicing loving others really works.  Did you see my Christmas stash?

         *I am going to encourage others to write.  From my mother to my friend Allison Oxford Rifkin (who also happens to be Virginia Pillsbury's daughter) to my friend Doris.  Sometimes when I read some of my friends' Facebook postings, I think "she needs to be a writer" (shout out to Beth Lunsford).

         *I will also spend more time with my grandchildren.  My children remember making fudge and watching football with granddaddy; taking trips with my parents and many Sunday dinners at grandma's house.  If I want them to remember me, I have to make time for Adorable, Admirable,  Gracious, Terrific, Effervescent, Caring and Radiant (*I have an agreement with my children - I don't write about their children by name - so I made up names).

         *I will read devotionals every day.  There are so many good ones on line.  I've been reading The Upper Room for a while and I really do have time to read more than one and find myself encouraged and challenged.  And maybe I will write a book of devotional thought.

     AND finally - I am going to have some fun

         * FUN?  Once more I searched for a definition and found the word ENJOYMENT.

         *I remember a song from my childhood - Jesus and Others and You what a wonderful way to spell JOY.   In other words, I'm going to find the joy which if you look back at the definition of bliss is one of the words that is included.

Okay Bobby - let's just say  - I'm ready to find my bliss!

"May the God of hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope" (Romans 15:13 - The Message).