One last "hello!" to you on the penultimate day of 2016. ("Penultimate" has long been one of my favorite words, ever since studying for the SAT way-back-when.) To send you on your merry way to 2017, here are some uplifting finds:
My brand-new online photography course is right around the corner! Let's start off the new year together by creating more beauty, peace, and mindfulness in the world. All the lovely details are here: Soul Focus: Finding Peace Through Photography. If you're on Instagram, get a $10 discount on the e-course by clicking the link in my profile here.
P.S. I took the photo of this big, beautiful wreath last week while driving by McTeigue & McClelland in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Isn't it the very picture of festive?
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Wonderful Weekend Wishes to you!
I got the best present yesterday. I was buying some bottles of wine for last-minute gifts and the cashier actually asked to see my I.D. (Internal squeal of glee!) I remember (decades ago) being miffed when the cashier asked to see my I.D. My goodness, how times change...!
Thank you so very much for checking in with me this year. I hope the new year ahead brings you and your family XXL measures of peace, warmth, health, happiness, lightness, respect, mindfulness, kindness, and most of all: love.
xoxox,
Joy
P.S. Join me for 14 gorgeous days of soul-soothing creativity this January! Enroll today (or gift a friend) for Soul Focus: Finding Peace Through Photography. (Spaces are limited.) Let's make 2017 beautiful, yes?
It's been a really rough year to have a blog with "Joyfully" in its name, let me tell you! Among other less-than-pleasant events, 2016 began with the death of David Bowie, then trudged on with earthquakes, wars, and wildfires, and is wrapping up with the U.S. being the most polarized I've seen it within my lifetime, thanks to a very long and bitter election season.
I'm not going to lie to you: There have been an awful lot of days this year when I've been in what I believe the mental health experts call "a funk."
And yet...there are only so many days I can drown my sorrows in salted caramel (godsend that it is). Sooner or later, the "fixer" in me kicks in and I want to try to make things better in some way. As a creative person, I know that art often arises out of dark feelings and experiences. But for me, it's also important to keep sight of what is still true, still beautiful.
Although I regularly take time to go outside and photograph nature, I found that I needed much more help as the year wore on to soothe my frazzled nerves.
I needed more books for guidance.
More art to lift my spirits.
More music to calm my mind.
More poetry that really spoke to me.
More creative ways to express my feelings.
(And of course, much more of the aforementioned salted caramel.)
Because I couldn't count on the world outside my door for stability, I looked for other ways to create more peace within myself. I began to journal about the things that gave me the most comfort, collecting all of the resources that uplifted and inspired me. It was no coincidence that these same resources nurtured a new idea of what I wanted to do creatively. Namely, create a brand-new online course, which I'm so very excited to share with you right now...
Soul Focus: Finding Peace Through Photography is about giving yourself the gift of quiet, contemplative time each day to focus on what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful.
It's about noticing more, appreciating more, savoring more.
It's about entering a gentle, sacred space of creativity.
It's about discovering what you can create with your camera (or your smart phone) when you embrace a more peaceful state of mind.
I'm so happy to be ending this year with something truly joyful. Will you join me for 14 days of soul-soothing creativity this January? (Do say "yes!")In the spirit of giving, I'm giving you $20 off this new e-course, good through December 23, 2016 only. (It would make a lovely holiday gift, too--no assembly or AAA batteries required!)
I don't know about you, but I'm always "all ears" when good books are up for discussion, whether I'm chatting with a friend or just standing in the check-out line, overhearing bookworms. I'm an unabashed book-addict, usually in the middle of three or four books at a time. I think I'm going to create a bumper sticker that reads "I brake for bookstores."
Actually, I'm much more likely to get books from my local library, as I did with all of the following books. I "test-drive" books; it's only if I feel an uncontrollable urge to underline multiple passages in a library book that I'll go ahead and buy it.
Here's what I'm reading (and recommending) right now:
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. I was on a loooooong waiting list for this best-selling book at the library and now it's finally my turn to read it! Fascinating stuff about how forests actually operate like a social network, with the trees helping each other grow and thrive, actually sensing when one needs help.
In the Slender Margin by Eve Joseph. Beautifully written by an award-winning poet, this book is about the author's many years as a hospice worker and how she was led to the profession by the early death of her brother. (I'm a huge believer in hospice care--my father was in hospice for his last months.)
Mortality by Christopher Hitchens. Oh, dear...my reading list seems a little on the morbid side this month, doesn't it? Well, I can't help it: Hitchens was a brilliant, witty writer. (This is the first book I've read of his, but he wrote for Vanity Fair for ages.)
Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann. This is another book that's been on my To-Read list forever, written by a controversial photographer who delves into her family's history by cleaning out her attic. It reads like a novel.
Flow magazine. Their tagline is "Celebrating Creativity, Imperfection, and Life's Little Pleasures." I can't get enough of this Dutch magazine and just bought a bunch of back issues that I'd missed. So inspiring!
P.S. I'll be announcing a brand-new online course for 2017 VERY soon, so if you're not yet on my "Writing with Light" subscriber list, do get yourself signed up lickety-split to get the first word and the Early Bird discount...
As I type this, I'm listening to the soundtrack of "Hamilton" (good stuff!) and gazing out the window at a warm, sunny day. Snowless in December is not how I remember the last month of the year from decades past. (Insert a wistful, treehugger-ish sigh here.)
Anyway: The first of December. I think I can already hear the screeching of shopping cart wheels.
I read something the other day from Artifact Uprising that resonated with me: "What if we gave fewer gifts that mattered more?"
Well, the grammar is a bit clunky (almost fooling us into thinking they mean "don't give too many gifts that matter"), but you get the gist. Instead of just filling up your cart this gift-giving season, hurriedly checking names off your list in a mad dash to the holiday finish line, why not choose just a few gifts that actually mean something? Things that won't be discarded or forgotten. Things that are not just things, but more like...feelings.
What represents you that you can give? What is the one thing your loved ones would treasure?
Make no mistake: It won't make your gift-giving list any easier. You'll have to actually think about what you'd like to give, and "Time for Thinking" has lost a lot of its allure in this multi-tasking age.
But, if you're up to the challenge, here are a few posts on the topic of giving gifts in a more meaningful way (and yes, one of them was written by Yours Truly):
And finally, if you know me "In Real Life", you know that I cringe at anything sales-y, but I'd be a clueless dolt if I didn't mention that you could always give someone you love one of my photography e-courses. It doesn't take up any room on the kitchen counter and the skills learned will last for life. A brand-new online course for 2017 will be announced VERY soon, so if you're not yet on my "Writing with Light" subscriber list, do get yourself signed up lickety-split so you can get the first word and the discount. (Sign-up is below.)
Happy Weekend to you, friends--and may it be a mall-free one!
