Description
What if we weren't intimidated by the task of living with full-throated joy?
In this collection of short essays, Shemaiah Gonzalez recommends a fresh view on life, through her own experiences and discovery of finding joy in both the mundane and magnificent. In energetic prose, Gonzelez finds delight in naps, capybaras, and wandering the English countryside - and encourages readers to see the joy present in these moments as well. When we turn our attention to the joy around us, we become attuned to God's constant presence with us and in all these things.
This is not toxic positivity. Gonzalez is no stranger to the darkness present in the world. Rather, knowing both darkness and light helps us acknowledge the disparity between the two. In Undaunted Joy, Gonzalez dares to stare darkness in the eye and respond in joy as an act of defiance.
Over the course of 37 essays, Gonzalez entices the reader to join her in this endeavor. Her tender reflections and engaging storytelling beckon us to look at the world through the lens of joy, even when faced with the pain and hardship, and thereby revolutionize our everyday. In teaching readers to see joy as a way of life, Undaunted Joy gives us permission to claim God's goodness even in a broken world and to share it with abandon.
About the Author
Shemaiah Gonzalez is a writer with degrees in English Literature (BA), Intercultural Ministry (MAPS) and Creative Non-Fiction Writing (MFA). She thrives in moments where storytelling, art, literature, and faith collide. Her work has appeared in America Magazine, Image Journal’s Good Letters, Ekstasis, The Curator, and Loyola Press, among others. A Los Angeles native, she now lives in Seattle with her husband, whom she has known since she was 14 years old, and their two teen sons.