This past week’s homework for “A Consciousness of Joy” class has been ‘interesting.’

The assignment was to notice each day during the week when I felt joy and write it down. It was a helpful exercise because it naturally had me more on the lookout for joy when I otherwise might have not noticed and passed it by as I know I can do. This, in itself, was a positive step towards increasing the joy in my life.

This week my spiritual readings and other material often included the word joy. Like today’s quote in 365 Science of Mind: A Year of Daily Wisdom from Ernest Holmes: “I walk in the joy of increasing Good.” I had to smile.

Alas, I cannot say that I actually felt joy this week—maybe if there had been horses on the farm where I volunteered on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I would have felt joy (they’re still being boarded elsewhere for the winter)!

I’m not surprised at the outcome of this week’s homework, as I know that joy has been fairly scant in my life for some time now. That’s one reason I wanted to take the class, to learn about how to more easily access and increase the joy that is inherent within my soul. Connecting with others in a meaningful way brings me joy, so that was another reason to attend. It didn’t quite register on the joy-o-meter, but I was sure glad to have been with the group last week.