Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight [Paperback]

'I loved this book. It both moved me to tears and made me chuckle; it will forever color the way I see life. I highly recommend becoming a part of Shemaiah Gonzalez's revolution of joy!''Imagine joy as a glass of bubbly champagne, and here's your friend Shemaiah, inviting you to drink up. She doesn't write about a cheap, easy joy. Hers is hard-earned, the kind you take hold of and cherish because you know its value. This kind of joy she offers, it left me wanting more of it in my own life too.''It's rare to come across a book that so thoroughly embodies its own message. Shemaiah Gonzalez's study of joy is a joy: to read, to engage, to behold. Her clear-eyed insistence on choosing all that is good--and offering unapologetic resistance to the demands of evil--cuts through every false complication to reveal the beautiful truth at the core of things. Let her show you how to do the same.''My favorite sentence in Shemaiah Gonzalez's Undaunted Joy is 'He wanted to paint joy.' It might surprise you to know that she's writing about Van Gogh and his art. That's what Gonzalez does with this book. She can take a person almost universally known as a symbol of desperation and see the brightness in him. We live in fraught times--we've always lived in fraught times--but Gonzalez teaches us that people have always found their way to joy.''Shemaiah Gonzalez's deliciously poetic debut book, Undaunted Joy, is ripe with delight. Some may think of joy as a naive, indulgent refusal to deal with the wounded world. Doesn't joy see? But this is the entire point, says Gonzalez, as she invites readers to behold God's world and squeal their pleasure. To meet Gonzalez in these pages is to long for her joy--and the hopeful faith that makes it possible.''The 'gracious fading light of sunset,' homemade quilts, and freshly cut grass are only a few of the many inspirations for joy that Shemaiah Gonzalez details in this beautiful book. But as cozy and reassuring as these reflections are, Undaunted Joyl³8