#stratejoy

[jjday10]

When you're constantly in new places with new people and the nature of your work is transient, you tend to gravitate toward the familiar. I've made an appearance at the Oxmoor Center Mall three out of the four days I've been working here in Louisville. I've spent at least 10 years over the course of my life working in various malls. The familiarity and predictability gives me a sense of comfort in my constantly shifting world. Today I tried to go somewhere else and found that they only took cash, and I didn't have any. So I came back to the mall to try this noodle shop I noticed yesterday. I placed my order, and the cashier handed me the number 10. I said "That's my lucky number!" He said "Well, I think that means you're going to have a good day," as if he knew my day was only just beginning. I smiled and said "I think it means I'm in the right place." He said "Well, you've got a great attitude. It's funny how the little things can just change your day." I agreed and went to my seat to wait for my food. The people at the next closest table sat down and their number was 41, another of my lucky numbers! What are the odds?! I think that these are lessons I keep learning over and over: •Magic is everywhere, if you're looking for it. •You're EXACTLY where you're meant to be right now, even if it's not exactly where you want to be. •Home isn't a place. Home is inside you- and you take it with you wherever you go. Get comfortable with yourself and you're always home. • • #home #inomniaparatus #wildhearted #ease #connected #adored #free #louisville #louisvillelove #filmmakerlife #workflow #filmmaker #lifelessons #learning #getcomfortablewithuncomfortable #travellife #cincyigers_away #elevate2017 #stratejoy #CourageCouncil #CoCo2017 #courage (at Yang Kee Noodle)

[mythyhuynh]

|| I am enough || I am full of sparkle and compassion. I genuinely want to make the world a better place. I love hard. I practice kindness. I’m not afraid of the truth. I am loyal, adventurous, supportive, and surprising. I am a woman. I am enough. I make mistakes, but I own them and learn from them. Sometimes I make a bunch of mistakes. I am enough. I am open, juicy, artistic, full blast. I am also vain, emotional, demanding, and looking for answers. I am a woman who is open to mysteries, accepting of miracles. I am diving in, devouring, loving, protecting, peeling back the surface of petty desires to the hunger for connection, for belief, for truth. I am less concerned with doing things correctly than I once was and more concerned with showing up and loving hard. I accept that a sense of wonder is something to cultivate. I accept that I sometimes self-medicate with alcohol, with filling my life full of busyness, with going into self imposed isolation. I accept that I crave financial abundance, a freedom to do what I want, when I want it. I am still enough. I am a lover of ripe mangoes, stars in the midnight sky, stories around the campfire, the smell of rich coffee, laughing until I can’t breathe, having someone reach for my hand, swimming naked. I am a lover, a sister, a storyteller, a daughter, a mentor, and a student. I am enough. -Molly Mahar It was little sister's birthday yesterday and finally got to catch up with her. I love the woman you and @llostnllov have become and are to each other. I love knowing how when we talk, you uplift me without knowing you do! Hope everyone has their own sister to do the same! 😘💕✨ #Sisters #stratejoy (at Belle Isle Fountain)

[jjday10]

Dear Jennifer, Age 30

This boy, I know he seems great. I know he seems like the answer to all of your problems.

But you’ll give him the keys to your life. And you’ll get in the passenger seat. And he doesn’t even want to drive. But you want to drive even a little less than he does, and he’s such a good driver.

You don’t know that your undiagnosed ADHD is causing most of the problems that make him laugh and say that you’re a bad adult. So you’ll believe him. You’ll think that you’re a bad adult and that he has all the answers. You’ll think that it’s best for him to tell you what to eat, or drink, or think, or be... You’ll take that job because you feel guilty that he’s been paying for everything. And he thinks you should take it. So you’ll take it. And you’ll be miserable at it, every day for 2 years. 

I saw you today. You ran into an old friend, a guy who you met that same fateful night that you met your ex. You remembered that night, the night that you met him. You wanted to stay out and hang out with this other guy. But that ship sailed, and you went off to the party where you met your ex. And your whole life got turned upside down.

Remember the time Megan told you that she didn’t know who you were anymore? She told you that you’d somehow lost yourself. That you weren’t the same joyful exuberant person you were when she met you in 2007? You stopped being Jen somewhere between there and here. But don’t worry, my dear. You’re starting to remember. 

You’re starting to remember that you were capable of being passionate about something. You’re remembering that you’re fun, and funny, and capable of doing nearly anything you set your mind to. You’re finding out that “being a bad adult” is a chemical cocktail in your brain that doesn’t quite let you work the same way other people do. And that awesome little orange and white pill you take each day helps a lot. 

You’re not a bad adult. You’re not a mess or a weirdo or bad in general. You’re not unlovable or undesirable or any of the things that you felt. You don’t have to stay in a relationship with a guy who’s not sure about you. You don’t have to search for and grasp at love with someone else... because your life is wonderful.

And you have all the love you need.

Love,

Jen, Age 36 

[jjday10]

Sunday Seven

1. I managed to make it to everything yesterday with minimal negativity. I ended up bookending the time spent with my HS friends with the birthday activities and it went pretty smoothly 2. Except for the part where the bar was just insanely crowded and I was there for 45 minutes and never got a drink and just felt horribly uncomfortable. I barely had any time with the birthday girl, but she knew I made the effort and that's what matters. 3. I spent the first 2/3 of today cleaning the kitchen/living room and I'm very pleased with how that feels. 4. Spent the last 1/3 before bed doing Holiday Council/self-improvement/reflection. I would like to have more days like this. 5. I'm feeling very positive about the general direction my life is headed and with a little planning, I honestly believe I can achieve some real success in 2016. 6. The key to that will be letting go of a lot of the bullshit. I'm planning on doing a releasing ceremony sometime between now and Thursday. I'm terrible at letting stuff go, but it's something I desperately need to do. 7. I consumed an awful lot of sodium today and I can feel it in my fingers right now. I hate that feeling. I need to watch that. It's certainly not good for my health. Speaking of, somebody remind me to take my adderall tomorrow morning, ok?

[eranjayne]

That Time I Went to Summer Camp | Tsawwassen Event Photographer

Friends and family who know me really well know that I had a pretty adventurous, soul-searching summer. In July, the hubs and I attended the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon for the first time.  And in August, I trekked all the way to Asheville, North Carolina for the first ever Stratejoy Summer Campfor grown-ass women. I was SO excited. I couldn’t imagine too many things that would be…

View On WordPress

[jjday10]

A letter to myself at age 16

Dear Jenny, 

Someday you’re going to hate being called Jenny. It will remind you of who you used to be. No, you’re not Jenny anymore, but Jen is you in a lot of ways. All of the very best ways.

You’re curious. You want to know what’s going on around you. That curiosity led you to read the note Christie asked you to pass to Chris, since you sit next to him in Concert Choir. 

I want to tell you, the things she said about you in that note AREN’T true. They’re idle chatter from a young girl who is trying to impress her older boyfriend.

You are not boring. You never were. I know you’ll spend YEARS pulling crazy stunts, drinking too much, doing all kinds of amazing and a lot of really stupid things trying to prove that. You’re not boring right now. You are the girl who went out for every club and every team. You are well-liked and more than that, you’re respected. Christie doesn’t know what boring means. She just wants to fool around with her boyfriend because she thinks that his approval is what she needs to love herself. You’re too busy doing SADD and Warriors for Christ and Students Acting For the Environment and Yearbook and the Newspaper and Volleyball and Drama and Band and Choir and Student Council and Spirit Club to worry about what a boy thinks of you. I wish you’d held on to that attitude.

I know she said that you like boys who would never like you. I wish you hadn’t believed her for all of these years. You’ll play this one out over and over again and it will be the reason that you stay in a 2-year relationship with a man who continually tells you that he doesn’t love you, but that he’s “sure that he’ll get there.”

Honey, he won’t get there. And you’re worth more than that. I wish you knew that YOU loving you is enough. There are so many other great things about you, Jenny. Don’t let go of them.

You’re resilient. You even tried out for Drill Team freshman year, even though you can’t learn choreography to save your life. When you didn’t make it, you bounced back. Maybe not everything is for you. You’re allowed to decide that YOU don’t like something and leave it. You’re not a quitter for that. You’re choiceful.

You’re full of conviction and fiercely loyal. Hold onto that, because it will serve you well. Sure, over the years, people will betray you. People don’t always have your best interests in mind. You have to do that for yourself. Stick to your guns. Don’t compromise your values, but don’t beat yourself up when they change, either. You’re allowed to change your mind about things. That’s called growth.

Your smile lights up the room and everyone in it. That won’t change, but be kind to yourself when you don’t feel it, because it’s not about them. It’s about you. You’re enough. You don’t need everyone to like you. 

You are awesome, and I love you. Welcome back to loving yourself, sweet girl.

Love,

Jen @ age 35

[pinkapplejacks]

It’s about doing the things that are good for you even when – ESPECIALLY when – you are in no mood. It’s about trusting the plan and the process, and staying the course even when obstacles appear in your path. It’s about doing the thing that feels most loving and healing even when that thing feels like the last thing you want to do.

-Lauren, Gender Studies Buff, and current Elevate 2014 Sister. 

[amzical]

The in-between time... Sometimes you feel like you are just waiting for the next big transition, the next big change to happen to you. You feel like you are biding your time while the external forces in your life follow their own slow, sweet process.