What would engage more people in creating a positive future?

YES!!!! - yes,yes,yes….  

When Nico was young I used to preface everything. Feeling like I had to explain all acts and keep at bay anything that could be construed as 'wrong' ,or not nice…blah blah blah.
Where's the joy in that?
It sets up a dynamic for judgement.

He's an amazing young man,regardless of the brainwashing I submitted him to as a child.
Children learn through observing,if they see you recycle and along comes the speech there is going to be some kind of wonky association later on ;-)
If you just do it then it's as natural as smiling,and instead of the speech on why you recycle   ( OMG what kid needs another speech” )  it just becomes another thing you do everyday.

I think joy becomes amoral when you hoard it all for yourself.

“And it isn't quite fair and certainly isn't motivating if the people who have only ever known shopping at the mall which they drive to in their SUV are just disparaged and despised by all the morally superior, I-would-never-do-that folks like me at my worst moments.”

I appreciate your honesty here, as it mirrors me in “my worst moments” too.  Environmentalism and “nutritionism” have replaced organized religion for many folks.  Back in the days when the church dominated society, sex was the “big stick” which was used to judge people and control their behaviour.(excuse the intentional pun here) 

Now, it's changed from whether we're pious enough to whether we're “green” enough, or  whether we are thin (and therefore “healthy”) versus obese (and therefore “unhealthy”. )  Pure joy exists when whatever we do is free of judgment. Morality carries with it an inherent categorization of actions and people as either good” or “bad.”   If we are taking care of our bodies and the planet, while at the same time, we're looking over at others who are not doing what we think they should be doing, we taint our joy.  The person on the receiving end of that kind of judgment often digs in their heels and resists change even more.  Human beings most often make changes when the pain of their current behaviour exceeds the pain of making the needed changes.  ie.)  Lots of people continued to drive large vehicles, even though climate change experts have been warning about global warming for years.  What is making those people trade in their vehicles now?  Not their carbon footprint, but the price of gasoline.  It seems that's the way human nature works.  I liked your blog, it's addressing a lot of the “us and them” mentality which pervades the time we're living in.

maze is right, joy should not be hoarded, and I'd like to add we should make our own joy…it is infectious, but may need to get the ball rolling in order to spread the wealth!

Great blog Jeannie

I love your thoughts on this too Jeannie….. Joy is it!….. I often have visions of a different kind of world, with home gardens and sharing, and public transport, and jugglers on the street corners, and mistrals in the town center……that amazing feeling of flow when love is the engine survival…. what a strange soap opera drama we have inadvertently created with all the moralizing and preaching…. it is amazing too how Joy is flourishing in unlikely places, playing out in the fields, blooming in our flowers, swimming in the seas…… and all the while we humans, perhaps the creatures with the greatest capacity for joy seem intent on languishing in strange fixations that no longer serve us.  The easiest and the hardest thing for any of us to do is to change our minds

Love this discussion, thank you all for the reminders to share our joy and joyfulness!  I am heading out to change my oil now!

When I slowed my pace down a bit,when my life morphed into a slower paced life things fell into place if almost by themselves. There was never any pressure to buy locally or take a bus instead of learning to drive,or share what I had it just was a by product of slowing down,and getting to know myself. I sense when something feels wrong and often the choices I made that weren't the better choice were made in a hurry. I see it a lot,and this morning when my friend came over and we talked about this,we nodded in agreement that some of the worst choices can be made when we pressure ourselves to make more money,be smarter be faster be better.
For me slowing down has gotten rid of a lot of the pressure and opportunities for decisions that don't really reflect who I am. I don't want to rule the world instead I want a quiet life that reflects who I really am….and jugglers in the street and people singing on the sidewalk,and the sweaters knit by hand ,and tomatoes grown 50 kms from here,and the recycling truck that passes Thursdays,and the books passed down touching many hearts and hands,and little lentils cooked just right….and finally joy,it's all here,just for the longest time I was moving too fast to notice.

Yes!  I truly agree with what B.B. just said… .  slowing down.  When that first starts to happen, we sometimes feel like there's somthing wrong with us, but then we come to realize it is something very, very right.  Here's a quote which I just came across which dovetails perfectly with this discussion:

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”

- Rumi

oh god…change is terrifying for me…it's taking an unusual twist

hurray for joy!!! 

today I hiked barefoot for about an hour, just for the sheer joy of it.  it was necessary to walk really slowly.  barefoot for such a tenderfoot as me, in the rocky mountains is a slow process.  I saw things I would otherwise not have seen and I felt less like I was trampling the trail underfoot.  I felt my feet connecting gently with the earth under them.  it was a joyful endeavor and it gave me a lot of good stuff to share with anyone I encountered for the rest of the day. 

it gave me enough energy to ride my bike home from work after working 5 hours of overtime on my day off.  and biking home gave me enough energy to play with the dogs and scoop the poop from the yard and mow with the gasless mower.  and all that gave me enough energy to read and write this and post a blog.

and I love that rumi quote!! 

yes.  I think joy is a great motivator. 

oh jeannie!!  I have a date to hike to a special place with a co-worker who was worried that I would be bored if we hiked together because she is a very slow hiker and just this morning – before reading this comment of yours– I told her that my hike barefoot yesterday inspired me to hike barefoot again and that she could be sure there is no way I would rush her or make her feel like I was bored if I was hiking barefoot.  she thinks i'm a little crazy, but seems to want to go anyway.  :-) 

and hey everybody!!   check this out…  it's a bunch of joyful dreamers changing the world for real!    hurray for joy and dreams and bikes and hikes and friends on gaia and friends off gaia too!!! 

:-)

I am joy when I touch time worn stone.  I am joy when the juice of a peach dribbles down my chin.  I am joy when I love, when I am loved.

I am joy when I read this blogpost and the comments.

I joy you all.

Yes!

And otter said: “Pure joy exists when whatever we do is free of judgment.”
And let me add to that: Free of self-judgement.
That includes not trying too hard to do the 'right' things. Things happen at the pace they should, and if intention is sincere, all will be very well. In fact, I suspect that all *is* very well already… :)

Everyday I learn to be less self-conscious, to accept my many errors and go with the flow. And these days, joy seems to bubble up from somwhere inside, more and more frequently. Experiencing joy is a sign that you are doing the right thing, I think.

Gotta go. Gotta hone those juggling skills.

jeannie – they have a section somewhere on that xtracycle website about how to build your own if you can't afford theirs.  they are THAT cool.  :-)  I was lost in that website for at least an hour the other day.  and what one of my bosses says whenever we want to do something that the big boss won't approve of, but that also is very unlikely to hurt anyone, is, “it's easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission”.  which makes me feel a little like a teenager.  (I hope jordan doesn't read this soon.  gigglemmmphsmilesmirk.)    I know you might not be interested in taking that line of thought on this subject, but it might come in handy about other things…..  :-)   it might work with the parts of ourselves that require the security of a steady paycheck and health insurance when we really want something else that those steady insurance providing jobs can't quite provide.  I'm always shocked, just shocked when he says that and then I go along with the plan because I know I won't have to take the heat or more accurately because I know the heat won't really be that intense.  :-)

albert – I am joy when reading gaia blog/conversations.  :-)

and otter and wonderer – yep.  joy exists when weare free of judgement– that must be why I love those gaia conversation/blog/threads so much.  I feel free and joyful here.  :-)

juggling skills?  I'm an amateur juggler– of rocks and bean bag thingies and bouncy balls and life activities.  :-) 

joy!  joy!  joy!  happy happy joy joy!