The Joy of Living

Book excerpt: This is a cheerful and optimistic book on the pleasures to be found every day.Intended for those seeking the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the author points out that you should find the jewels strewn along the way instead. Marden offers twenty-six chapters of common-sense advice for the average man or woman who is overworked, striving and struggling to get ahead—what he believes to be the American way of life. With chapters including “The Strain to Keep Up Appearances,” and “Postponed Enjoyment,” the author offers hopeful, inspiring, and illuminating messages and ideas, pointing out that happiness is more a condition of mind than of environment, and he offers the reader many opportunities to find joy in the common things found in daily life. Pointing out that there is a positive chemistry in a cheerful mind, so therefore health and happiness are related, Marden goes on to show how happiness can be cultivated.