Joy and Gratitude can be stimulated by relationships with family and community.  They can be induced by stopping to marvel at nature.  They can flow forth when we have honed a skill or morphed a challenge into a gift.   No matter the origin, these emotions have the power to expand our soul and our love of this life.  They cleanse us and invigorate us.

I believe that we are here to enjoy the gifts and challenges of this three dimensional world.  I don't' always remember this.  I find that I get so deep in service and survival that I forget to take a minute,  or 5 minutes,  to just enjoy being alive in the sun,  or just being in the nurturing presence of family and friends.

  
I see life as a process of working with the gifts and challenges in both our physical body and in our spirit.    I believe that our purpose here is both to hone the gifts and to work with the challenges of our personal body/soul experience.  More importantly, it is to create a better experience for the greater human and non-human communities of this earth. 
We come to this planet to experience it as fully as possible.  When I forget to emphasize the joy of this experience, I am the loser.    No matter how little we have, or the challenges we are experiencing, we can always take a moment to allow gratitude and joy to fill our hearts.  They are the best pill for our lives.  They will save us. 

For as we are joyful, we spread that joy to others.  Who can resist another's smile or spontaneous laughter?  Whose heart does not respond when gratitude for life fills the room?

I choose the experience of Joy and Gratitude as my salvation for both my body and my soul.    IF this life is all we have, then creating and taking the time to be joyful and grateful can only make this life more enjoyable.  If our soul is immortal, what better gift could we give to that immortal being that is our soul, than to expand it with the vibrational WOW of gratitude?  I choose Joy and Gratitude as my salvation.  How about you?