We Cannot Pursue Joy

I have been reading The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This is how they summed up finding joy. "we cannot pursue joy as an end in itself, or we will miss the bus. Joy comes rather, from daily thoughts, feelings, and actions." Throughout the book they repeatedly told us "the action that gets us on the bus: bringing joy to others." It sounds so simple, yet we are very good at placing obstacles between ourselves and the disposition of joy. Some tough obstacles may have been there since our birth. They seem insurmountable. Yet both these amazingly loving men both had huge obstacles to deal with in there life, and yet both live joyfully. What great role models they are for us. I found in my life that I just had to keep chipping away through my troubles, my uncomfortable feelings, my negative thoughts, like chipping away at an iceberg. For a long time I didn't feel like I was getting very far, but eventually the iceberg crashed into the sea. The landscape was never the same again.