Repeat the Sounding Joy.

My dear readers,

One of my favorite moments from one of my favorite holiday films - The Family Stone - is when Sarah Jessica Parker and Luke Wilson are cuddled in bed, looking up at the ceiling, and she starts humming "Joy to the World." She lands on the phrase in the lyrics, 

REPEAT THE SOUNDING JOY
REPEAT THE SOUNDING JOY
REPEAT, REPEAT
THE SOUNDING JOY.

Then Luke Wilson says quietly to himself, "Repeat the sounding joy. Hmm."

I love that moment so much.


At Farm Sanctuary's Orland, CA shelter. Photo © Connie Pugh.
Mostly because, that's been the theme running inside of me for much of 2012. I've been outwardly living my inner joy for a while now, but after reading The Secret this past week (I know, I know, how did I let it pass me by for almost seven years before picking it up?), I'm totally convinced that living joyfully is absolutely the right way to go. A few things I took away from the book: 

Our thoughts are extremely powerful in helping to shape our 
world, 

Focusing and obsessing on what we don't want will just continue to bring it to us, and even more importantly, will keep us from bringing in what we do want, 

Living in gratitude, actively choosing to be happy now, and having complete faith in our pursuits - that's the key to growing and lasting success.

One of my favorite quotes from Rhonda Byrne's book is by Lisa Nichols:

"Everything that you want - all the joy, love, abundance, prosperity, bliss - it's there, ready for you to grab ahold of it. And you've got to get hungry for it. You've got to be intentional. And when you become intentional and on fire for what you want, the Universe will deliver every single thing you've been wanting. Recognize the beautiful and wonderful things around you, and bless and praise them. And on the other side, the things that aren't currently working the way you want them to work, don't spend your energy faulting or complaining. Embrace everything that you want so you can get more of it."


Now, I didn't read Rhonda's book lightly - I know that anything worthwhile takes a little time and rarely, if ever, comes the way we expect it would. But in this past year, a few magical occurrences have transpired, and the outcome of them has far exceeded what I was hoping for when I planted the seed of the goal in my heart. One came in the form of falling head over heels in love with the prospect of producing a feature film. And it's just the beginning. 

So, how does all of this apply to vegan living and our pursuit to create a more compassionate world?

Well...


I love you, Fred.
What if, instead of admonishing, criticizing, or judging someone for their non-vegan choices, we praised them for any small step they take in the right direction?

What if, instead of simply preaching the benefits of vegan living, we actively practice living the benefits and be a beautiful example to those around us?


What if, instead of only focusing our thoughts on the pain, misery, and abuse occurring at this very moment for the billions of animals in this country and beyond, we focus intently on creating positive change for them, we focus intently on the farmed animal rescues that do occur, we focus intently on our vegan movement growing person by person, we focus intently on meat consumption dwindling (it's already gone down 12% in the last five years!), and we live in that focus?

What if.

This coming year, I encourage you, my beautiful readers, every single day to choose joy. Choose positive thinking over negative. Choose to put out oodles of bliss-filled vibes out there for our world and the animals, and with that, take compassionate steps toward the kind of world you want. Which bring to mind a few quotes:


If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do. -Gandhi

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.
- Willa Cather

Gratitude always comes into play; research shows that people are happier if they are grateful for the positive things in their lives, rather than worrying about what might be missing.
― Dan Buettner


I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.- Henry David Thoreau

Steve with a rescued hen at Farm Sanctuary's Animal Acres.
To you all - to you wonderful, compassionate readers - at the very end of the day, pretty pretty please - 

Praise yourself for any single step YOU are taking to live compassionately. Because each and every one of you are HEROES for the animals. No matter how small your action.

So get out there, encourage someone, hug an animal friend, and be a shining example of what it really means to live in Ahimsa, which is to truly live vegan. 

Thank you for being so supportive, loving, and loyal with your readership this year. Here's to a magical 2013! 

Love and vegan kisses,

Lindsay, Steve, and the rest of the Kiss Me, I'm Vegan family


Comments

Jolca said…
I love this post, so very inspiring! Thank you and Happy Holidays!
Unigraf-Print said…
Noworoczne pozdrowienia dla autora