What brings you joy?

Joy is different than happiness.  Joy is slow burning while happiness is often experienced as a blazing wildfire, easy to extinguish with a shift of the winds.  I am warmed by joy from the inside out when I inhale the crisp ocean breeze under a sunset painted over the Pacific Ocean at the edge of Los Angeles, the cityscape faintly dancing behind me.  Joy swells up and radiates out of me when I fan the inner flame with fresh air borne of the Rocky Mountains.  I'm happy that I have the opportunity to be in these places again and again, to climb into those spaces and touch the waves and trees.  It's the blessing of joy, however, that lingers in the form of knowing Heaven is just ahead and the brilliance of color and light and peace consumed by our senses on Earth are only whispered hints of what is to come.

(Submitted to www.oprah.com by me.  If I get published, I won't have rights to my words, but they are mine and I'd like to share them here with you.  So, in the spirit of sharing thoughts and giving up the royalties, what brings YOU joy?  I'd like to know.  Promise I won't sell your answer.)

"Customer service is closed."

Walmart is one of the most irritating experiences a person can have.  Well, that and dealing with the less-than-just justice system.  I'm so frustrated, I can't even write sensibly. Where is the justice in this world?  Does it exist or is it a fleeting idea, a notion built of utopia and faith in the mostly unrealized upstanding human spirit.

I wonder if Walmart would do a better job at managing the justice system so that it takes less time to find out if you're going to be victimized by the system intended to protect the innocent.  And, I suppose the courts and police and legislature might reduce the gross gaps in management style in local markets which Walmart can't seem to standardize.  They'll empower nearly anyone who will work the hours and who has put in their time, it appears, regardless of whether they actually have any leadership skills.  The government seems to really enjoy standards and lock-step classifications, stripping people of any individual latitude to make reasonable judgments and decisions for the sake of precedent and standards.  In both situations, I will quote a Walmart worker in a faded blue shirt:  "customer service is closed."  Ironic and uncanny.

It's frightening how unreasonable the law can be...police officers pumped up on false authority, court window clerks feeding on hallow tenure, and lawyers who jump in bed together to siphon funds from people needing help.  It's infuriating how shoddy service can be at any random Walmart store run by people who paid their dues on the store floor but have no real clue how to create a positive retail experience.  Seriously, it's not brain surgery and yet both situations, paralyzing. 

Lately, the mantra that rings in my mind is simple:  "Be still and know that I am God."  Psalm 46:10

I suppose there's nothing better to marinade my thoughts in, no better anti-venom for the deep bite from a losing battle with injustice.  And, consider the monuments of injustice like wrongful imprisonment and reckless, random killings.  I can be thankful that the most unjust thing I experienced today was an unexpected, unfortunate waste of time at a Walmart store and not unsubstantiated imprisonment or senseless, random homicide.

Be still and know that I am God.  Be still.  And know.  That he...HE is God.