When's the last time YOUR life was this joyful?

[MiddleFingerMom]

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.

[hunter]

1. Yep, I've worked in places like that.

Where I was little more than a robot forced to act as if I was joyful just to have a their stinking job, otherwise they'd fire my ass.

[MiddleFingerMom]

2. Did you have enough 'flair'? n/t

[hunter]

4. No, but I had plenty of flare.

And I was fired.





Here's a happy elephant for you:

flickr.com

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. My dear MiddleFingerMom...

It's been a very very long time since I felt that kind of joy...

It could happen again.

Maybe.

Thank you for the reminder...

:hug:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

5. These days, "joy" means 24 hours without someone fucking with me or threatening me.

My prescription for a happy life:

"Never Owe Money."

Because the minute you do, it's like dodging a never-ending hail of bullets. People get in your face and tell you what they're going to do to you if you don't pay them their motherfucking money, and if you say "I don't have it," they just keep repeating the threats, figuring they'll fucking destroy your ass one way or another.

Happy New Year everyone!

:grouphug:

[pink-o]

7. Money takes the joy out of everything!

I've seen marriages survive a cheating spouse but never NEVER make it through bad financial problems.

The hardest thing is finding the balance between having enough $$$ to keep you free, but not too much that it imprisons you. (Although I'm willing to be the guinea pig to find out EXACTLY how much the latter might be...)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

8. Yep...truer words were never spoken.

Money really represents freedom, nothing more. Freedom to live where you want to live, drive what you want to drive, wear what you want to wear, go where you want to go...

...and when we experience "freedom" without any kind of hardship or restriction, our ego begins to tell us that we are "invincible," that we are "better than" others, that we got to that point via some form of ingenuity that will prevent our "freedom" from ever being taken away from us.

Like John Lennon once said "Life is what happens when you're making other plans."

:toast:

[datasuspect]

6. when i learned how to shit rainbows

[Richard Steele]

9. My life has never been that joyful. Never not once.

I am aware of 'joy' as an abstract concept.

I have been told of what it is;
I can often tell when other people feel it,
and I really enjoy observing them as they experience it.

Joy is very INTERESTING to me, when I happen to come across it.

I suspect it's a lot of fun, from what I've seen of it.

[MiddleFingerMom]

10. I'm sorry that you (don't) feel that way.

.
.
.
Do you think it might be something for which you could get help?
.
.
As in a doctor or counseling?
.
.
A friend (who was bipolar) was on some serious psychotropic medication which
she would purposefully stop taking from time-to-time -- even though it would
mean hospitalization until her med levels were up to where they should be again.
.
.
It was inconceivable to me that she would do this -- KNOWING that the above
would happen -- until she explained to me that the meds leveled out ALL her
emotions. She would feel no lows... but she would feel no highs, either.
.
.
I finally understood and I thought that must be terrible to endure.
.
.
Sometimes it's a background thing. Sometimes it's a chemical imbalance thing.
.
.
If you can GET help... I hope you do.
.
.
:hug:
.
.
.

[Richard Steele]

28. It's not so bad as I may have made it sound there.

I don't feel PAIN either...at least not the way
most people do. And that's a GREAT thing, believe me.

Inside my own head, my emotional highs and lows
are just as significant to me as anyone elses are to them.

I enjoy the SMALLEST things so much more than anyone I know.

We're all different. It's all good. :hug:

[MiddleFingerMom]

29. I'm REALLY glad to hear that... things sounded very bleak for you.

.
.
.
There's a series of novels (with each chapter basically its own short story)
by a science-fiction writer name of Spider Robinson (one of my favorites)
about Callahan's CrossTime Saloon. VERY funny, VERY rowdy, VERY bawdy,
VERY irreverent, lotsa fun if you can handle the extreme amount of punning
that goes on.
.
One of the novels (I think it started with the current saloonkeeper's wife
being 9-3/4 month pregnant) and has a chapter that introduces a human
character who has an extremely rare medical condition in which he can feel
nothing physically whatsoever -- including no pain. Everyone initially thinks
this is fantastic until they realize that he can't tell if he's walking on glass
or burning himself on a stovetop element, etc.
.
You might like that. They're a very community-oriented, empathic, humanistic
bunch -- the customers/characters there.
.
.
.
Much like many of the characters here in The Lounge.
.
.
.

[Richard Steele]

36. I greatly enjoyed all of the 'Crosstime Saloon' novels until the last one.

I felt it read like Mr. Robinson was writing
a love letter to his own ego. Left a bad taste in my brain.
Been avoiding his work ever since.


My problem is not like your friend's.
I can't MISS something I've never had.

And it has some very serious advantages at times.
I don't think of it as a handicap; I think of
it as an amazingly useless superpower.

[texanwitch]

11. It has been at different stages.

My childhoo years up to 13 was great, from 13 to 19 not so much.

My young adult years in Austin was great, so were the Army years.

KInd of sucked out of the Army, then got better.

It is great now, wasn't so great when I was taking care of my parents.

That is life.

[swimboy]

12. Being naked in a waterfall is really conducive to joy.

BTDT, as they say.

[MiddleFingerMom]

13. Totally agree. Being ANYTHING in a waterfall is really conducive to joy.

.
.
.
Even just NEAR a waterfall.
.
.
.

[mikeytherat]

14. What about naked, public cartwheels?

Those are pretty good, too.

mikey_the_rat

[MiddleFingerMom]

15. wow mom wow mom wow mom wow mom, etc. n/t

[burrfoot]

16. hahahahahaha

that took me a second. You're a frickin' clever one MFM. :toast:

[MiddleFingerMom]

17. Thanks, but that's an OLD joke (and not mine), but I've used it often enough in my life...

.
.
.
...to be sorely TEMPTED to get those tattoos.
.
.
.
And kudos to you for getting the joke without context. :toast:
.
.
.

[swimboy]

22. I'm pretty sure I only sent those pictures to ThomCat.

If memory serves me, and it doesn't always.

[MiddleFingerMom]

30. Thank you SO much for not sharing. n/t

[surrealAmerican]

18. This is why I have dogs.

Just being near someone who can be that happy feels good.

[MiddleFingerMom]

19. I feel ya.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You know...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...figuratively, of course.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.

[RedCloud]

20. I can't rejoice with elephants right now!

[nolabear]

21. I'm pretty often joyful. Life has been as complex as anybody's but what a ride!

Btw I've also been on the Jungle Ride at Disneyland.

[cutlassmama]

23. Probably my teen years, but now I'm in a comfortable place

[Bake]

24. It's been too damn long, that's for sure!

Bake

[bigwillq]

25. Last night about 11 p.m.

:evilgrin:

:rofl:

:P

[MiddleFingerMom]

26. I sure do like your answer!!! n/t

[bigwillq]

27. Thanks!!

:)

[csziggy]

31. January 12, 2011

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=9596760&mesg_id=9596760

I still get happy every time I go out to see the not so little guy. His name so far is Buckles.

[MiddleFingerMom]

32. Totally understandable -- what a beautiful boy!!!

.
.
.
Little-bitty guy.
.
.
.
Mama looks at me sharply and mutters, "Easy for YOU to say, Bucko.'
.
.
.

[csziggy]

33. I need to get more pics of him - he's grown

But the nice days in the last week we were out of town. That was joyous, too. We celebrated my parents' 65th wedding anniversary. Our entire immediate family was there except for two of their grandchildren that could not make it. We all had a grand time, no arguments, lots of laughter and a whole lotta JOY!

[Lorien]

34. Hey, it's easy when you live in a theme park and are made of concrete!

just ask any elephant from the Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise ride. ;-)

[MiddleFingerMom]

35. Now that's just not necessarily so!!!

.
.
.
One of the concrete animals from the now-defunct Tucson Magic Carpet Golf putt-putt course...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...begs, I say - I say - I say he begs to differ, suh!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.

[kimi]

37. I had a few pretty joyful days recently

in Barcelona. Trip didn't go exactly as planned, but the fact that it was better than I expected - travelling by myself essentially, seeing new places, getting lost and enjoying it - yeah, that was good!! When expectations are sorta low and you sorta dread stuff, and things go better than ya think, that's pretty durn nice.

Great idea for a thread, BTW!!

[orleans]

38. it's been a long fucking time. n/t