Gladness

I'm in NC for a few days and enjoying a beautiful soft rain this morning.  I got in most of my yoga process out in the yard near the trees before the rain began and finished up on the porch.  A delight to hear the rain on the metal roof, which, of course, I can do at the Pond also.  But here everything is green - many trees very close to the house and lovely patches of summer flowers around….We arrived yesterday afternoon and put in a couple of hours of good clearing in the garage - loaded all the paint and other cans and bottles of useful stuff into my car to take home.  Getting down to the big stuff left to handle next. ….This morning's reading brought to my attention another word for happiness - gladness.  Reading Frederick Buechner's Secrets in the Dark chapter on calling of voices.  He says:  We should go with our lives where we most need to go and where we are most needed……the voice we should most listen to when choosing our vocation … ..is the voice of our own gladness.    I wonder how many of us have actually used that as our major factor in choosing whatever activity we have been in or are involved in now?  Can we even recognize our own gladness?  What does it take to make you or me glad?  ……And, how do we know where we are "most needed."  He says:  If we keep our lives open, the right place will find us.