It may be your custom to wake up in the morning and to think about what you have going on today. That's fine. Think what you look forward to doing or happening. Just don't wake up in the morning and think about what you don't want to do or even what you might dread doing. What a difference it makes what you think of and how you think about it when you wake up in the morning. It could even set the pattern for your day.

Do you want to be disgruntled all day? Well, maybe you do. If not, I say to encourage joy.

Activate yourself to start off your day with joy even if it isn't tremendously special. Surely you look forward to eating.

If you feel like you are coming down with a cold, look forward to getting better.

If you, for instance, are having surgery today, then think about how much better you will feel when you wake up to find you are still alive. Actually, of course, if you don't wake up to find you are still alive in the world, you will, indeed, feel better than you have felt in a long while. You will more than feel. You will be surrounded with the equivalent of All Joy in Heaven.

Getting back to today, if you do not see something in this day to lighten your heart, then add something to this day that gives you at least a modicum of joy. Joy does not have to be flung at you. You can insert joy yourself.

Give yourself a special treat, whatever that might be for you. It might be eating a sandwich on a park bench by yourself. It might be taking a friend out for lunch. It might be going to a fancy restaurant instead of where you usually go. It might be shopping. It might be buying yourself a potted plant for your desk. It might be greeting everyone you see. Find a way to be good to yourself and others today in the world you find yourself in.

If you long for a treat, give yourself a treat. Be the harbinger of joy yourself. Don't delay.

What would you like today? What could give you even a little cheer? What cheer could you perhaps give to someone else?

Maybe you just would like a nice surprise today.

Who knows everything that is in store for you today. Meanwhile, take some joy in this day that will never come again. Today could be a red letter day. It could be the best day of your life. Inspire yourself today. Why not?

Celebrate ahead of time. Celebrate what is yet to come. It could be manna from Heaven that will be arriving today in whatever form you might relish. Think of this instead of some of the thoughts that you let cling to you.

Let Me hear you shout out: "This is a beautiful day today!" Or: "This is going to be a beautiful day today!" or: "Today is going to be the best day of my life." How do you feel now?
 
And at the end of the day, let Me hear you shout out:

"What a beautiful day today was! I had the time of my life!"

How do you make your day beautiful? By appreciating it.

First, you are alive! Be alive then. Be a practitioner of joy. Look for it. See it. Thank God for it. Never mind the heaviness you could look for and find. Look for harbingers of joy, and spread the seeds.

You are not to be a freeloader on Earth. No sitting and waiting. Better to have get-up-and-go any day. Most certainly on this day, on this very day. This is the only one you have at your disposal right now. Make this day wonderful. This one – right here.