Joy is not produced because others praise you.

Joy emanates unbidden and unforced.

Joy comes as a gift when you least expect it.

At those fleeting moments you know why you were put here and what truth you serve.

You may not feel giddy at those moments, you may not hear the orchestra’s delirious swell or see flashes of crimson and gold, you may not hear the bright lights coming on when you enter….

… but you will feel a satisfaction, a silence, a peace, a hush. Those moments are the blessings and the signs of a beautiful life.

Joy comes in when you conquer your weaknesses.

Humility is having an accurate assessment of your own nature and your own place in the cosmos.

Humility is awareness that you are an underdog in the struggle against your own weakness.

Humility is an awareness that your individual talents alone are inadequate to the tasks that have been assigned to you.

Humility reminds you that you are not the center of the universe, but you serve a larger order, larger than you.