JOY IS ALWAYS WITHIN YOUR REACH
August 23, 2025
Joy, like life, is layered with moments of heartbreak and hope, resilience and radiance. Profound adversity often opens the door to deeper appreciation of life. It sharpens our senses, expands our capacity to feel, and reminds us how precious it is simply to be alive.
​
Reflections & wisdom
​
After speaking with George Reinitz, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor (Podcast Episode 114), I was deeply moved by how his story holds both unimaginable suffering and a profound, enduring resilience. His insights are timeless reminders of what it means to be human—and how joy can coexist with pain. Here are three reflections I want to share with you:
​
🔹 Relationships are lifelines, especially in our darkest hours.
George spoke about the vital role of human connection during his time in the Auschwitz camp and throughout his life afterward. As a 12-year-old orphan rebuilding his world in Canada, he was embraced by a woman who became like a second mother. That relationship changed the trajectory of his life—and taught him what it meant to feel truly loved again.
​
🔹 Luck can flicker, even in the bleakest moments.
On the day George believed would be his last, as he was being marched toward the gas chambers, an officer asked him a simple question: Do you know how to ride a bicycle? The officer wanted someone to teach his son. George did—and that skill, in that moment, became his survival card. Nine months later, he was liberated and began a new chapter.
​
🔹 The recipe for joy? Love.
When I asked George what mattered most for a joyful life, his answer was immediate: “To love somebody.” He was married for over 60 years. Together with his beloved wife, he raised three daughters. His deepest joy now comes from seeing his grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow. The recent loss of his wife still aches, and as he lovingly spoke about her, I was reminded of a line from the movie City of Angels (1998) with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan:
“I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One.” George’s story is a powerful reminder: that even through life’s greatest trials, love, connection, and small miracles can lead us back to joy.
​​​​
One Action Toward More Joy​
As author Mel Schwartz writes in The Possibility Principle, “The most intimate and impactful relationship you will ever have is not with your parents, your partner, or your children. The relationship that will impact you far more than any other is with your thoughts. They are your constant companion. You can learn to make them your best ally.”​Take a moment to ask yourself:Is the stress in your life rooted in a need to know what comes next?For many of us, the answer is yes. We crave certainty—about our future, our success, our relationships—and when we can’t get it, anxiety builds. But as Schwartz reminds us, trying to control the unknowable is a recipe for constant tension.​Instead, we can begin to shift our mindset:
💠Notice the thought.
🌀 Don’t become the thought.
🌿 Let it pass and choose presence over prediction.​
Your Joyful Action:
​
Reflect on one area of your life where uncertainty is creating stress. Name it.Now gently ask yourself: Can I welcome this unknown as part of my path?Let joy come not from having the answers—but from trusting yourself to navigate whatever comes.​
Joyful brain delight​
Hidden artistic treasures can now be revealed so we can marvel our eyes and our senses with creations from the past: Alex Kachkine, a mechanical engineering graduate student at MIT, developed a new method to physically apply a digital restoration directly onto an original painting using AI.
"We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.”
– Joseph Campbell