What a beautiful thread. Dotsie, the image of you sitting at your table every morning, surrounded by God in such a variety of ways, just fills me...with a mixture of awe, delight, hope, inspiration and yes, joy. Every morning now at breakfast, instead of reading the newspaper, I read a chapter out of one of those Women of Faith studies (I'm still working on the "Contagious Joy" - but now it's meaning a whole lot more than it did when I first began it). Every morning, I look forward to that moment when I can open that book and read that day's message (I also have daily inspirational books that I read earlier before even getting out of bed!). The moment I open that book, the image of you doing the same fills me with a sense of companionship, fellowship and yes, joy!

Mountain Ash, I love your words about peace. I especially take to heart "peace for me is not passive, it is a state of balance". That's my quest, finding and living out of a core of joy and peace, or in your words which help to clarify it even more, a state of balance.