A wise woman named Cheryl Richardson said the following in her weekly blog at cherylrichardson.com. See if this sounds familiar. “I stood at the kitchen sink rinsing plates and putting them in the dishwasher when I noticed a familiar train of thought laying tracks in my head. Let’s see, I told myself, I’m done paying bills, balancing the bank accounts, and cleaning up the kitchen, so now I can make a cup of tea and finish reading my book. Sounds harmless enough, except that it was the third time in a week that I caught myself acting as if I could only do what I wanted to do once work was done.” The problem with this kind of thinking is that it ignores the fact that we need regular doses of joy in our lives in order to be happy and healthy human beings. Joy is something we need to make time for on a regular basis; not something we should have to earn.