Everyday Canvas

June 2

For "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" 

Prompt: Is there a difference between joy and happiness?

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There are different ideas on the subject. In normal language, or rather among lay people, the feeling of joy is deemed to be more short-lived and sudden than happiness.

Yet, it is quite the opposite with the way religion looks at the subject and the way the psychologists and those who research human behavior do. They believe that joy is more consistent and is cultivated internally. Happiness, on the other hand, depends on external facts like other people, places, thoughts, events, or things.

The main point is both feelings or states of being are positive ones. From the psychologists’ POV, aiming for joy is more beneficial, more lasting, and it signals an internal maturity in a person as it is not tied to external circumstances, and it avoids negative thinking as much as it can; whereas with happiness, one can go from a feeling of exhilaration to a heartbreak in short time, such as a child seeing a new toy and thinking it is for him but finding out it was meant to be a gift for another child who is his friend. Yet, joy is selfless; in the same scenario, the child who sees the new toy still feels elated by the thought that the toy could bring happiness to his friend.

For: "Space Blog" 

Prompt: From Elfin Dragon-finally published ’s "Invalid Item" 

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Such a nice, thoughtful poem of honoring one’s parents. I have to say, “Lucky parents!”

Honor means paying respect and attaching worth to someone. According to most religions, parents whose children honor them are eternally blessed as are the children for their respectful behaviors. This is held to be the truth even when the parents may be parents who are, let’s say, not up to par.

For being humans, some parents may be impatient, irritable, and faulty and may act and react badly in very many ways. For that reason, at some point, most people need to forgive their parents for some ineptitude of their upbringing. That kind of forgiveness is an important key to a happy life for everyone concerned.

Where parents are concerned, they should be thoughtful of their children, to provide them with examples of righteous lives, honesty, respect for the laws, purity of actions, speech and thoughts, and then, parents should show love to their children even when they least deserve it, listen to them and value their thoughts and their ways of seeing the world, and be supportive, encouraging, and appreciative of their interests and activities.

Then, when parents and children honor one another equally, it advances humanity with peace, prosperity, and progress in all areas.