You know what joy feels like. You are not a stranger to it. Well, how do you create more of anything you like? You think about it, don’t you?
Before you make cookies, you think about them. The more kinds of cookies you want, the more kinds of cookies you think of. What cookies would you most like? You look up recipes. You look at pictures. You think about all the cookies your heart would like to have, and then you pull out the ingredients and you start making cookies.
If you desire more joy, then bring it to the fore in your thoughts. Stroll through the joys you would like as you do recipes. Stir joys in your mind. Your joys will come true. This is how it works with joy.
Now this is delicate. Understand that desiring and needing are two different things. We’ve talked about this. There is no need to be desperate for joy whatever form you want it in. You do not need to have a beautiful bride. You do not need to have a fortune in gold. You do not need to be a great artist.
Desire is lovely. Needing is not.
So desire fulfillment of your desires, and desire all the great joy that right now in this moment of desiring you can have. It comes just from thinking about what you desire. You can have instant joy now.
It really isn’t easier to desire cookies, beloveds. It’s just that you can bake the cookies in your kitchen and not wait for life to deliver them to you. You can go right into action. You can make cookies and not wait for anyone or anything, though life too can deliver the cookies to you – there can be a knock on your door and a friend appears who has some cookies for you. These things happen.
You may want a shining new car, a delightful job, a large amount of cash, a new house, but what is the commonality of all you desire? What you are really desiring is joy. You do not have to have the shining new car, delightful job, large amount of cash, new house in order to have your desire for joy to be fulfilled. You can make inroads of joy. Where does joy exist? It does not exist in the car etc. It exists in you. So simply stir the joy in you and see what develops.
When you ask the Universe for a new car, for example, you do not want to limit the gifts from the Universe. And you do not want to be impatient with the Universe. If you receive something else meanwhile, you want to be grateful, don’t you?
There is such a difference between your saying, “Oh, darn, I didn’t get my new car. I got something else instead,” and your saying: “Isn’t this wonderful? I got something else. I’m glad. It’s a sign of all the good that is to come.”
When you find a penny on the street, be glad.
Whatever comes your way, be glad and grateful. Do you see how you can practice joy? The joy you feel can only bring more joy. Beloveds, you don’t want to be fussy when it comes to joy. You may be expecting a different guest to come. Meanwhile, welcome the one who does visit, and so you are becoming practiced in how to accept joy.
I don’t want to say that you are to be a good sport because that would imply there is reason for you to be disappointed and reason for you to be impatient, and so that you are right to be unhappy. I am telling you there is every reason to be glad. From gladness will come more and more joy.