Jump Start Your Joy

Category: blog

  • A Guest Post on Facing Change

    A Guest Post on Facing Change

    I’m super excited and proud to have a guest post over at Addie Martin’s blog today and it’s all about facing change! I’m hoping you’ll head on over and check it out (along with all of her other amazing posts!) Please leave a comment for Addie and give her a big hello…

  • Growth and the Importance of Pruning

    Growth and the Importance of Pruning

    This post is being pulled out of the archives from 2009, it was one of my favorite posts from that time period about growth and the importance of pruning. Enjoy! I was cleaning up around the apartment and found that one of my plants, a small fern, was worse for wear.…

  • A Wedding Prayer

    A Wedding Prayer

    My cousin was married in 2011 and he and his wife to be asked me to say a wedding prayer at their rehearsal dinner. It was one of the greatest things that I had ever been asked. It’s hard to put into words just how blessed I was to play…

  • Finding Peace and Contentment in a Busy Life

    Finding Peace and Contentment in a Busy Life

    Today’s post is a guest post by my friend and colleague, Addie K .Martin.  At times peace and contentment can feel elusive, especially where there’s so much to do on a day to day basis. I could list these things, but I’m sure you’re all too aware of the myriad…

  • Don’t Let the “Fear of Missing Out” Guide Your Decisions

    Don’t Let the “Fear of Missing Out” Guide Your Decisions

    Maybe you’ve heard of the phrase the “Fear of Missing Out,” (or FOMO)? It has become popular recently, and it’s used to describe a person’s underlying fear that by not attending an event or making a purchase that you “might miss out on the one thing that will make all the difference” in your life.…

  • How  to Plan a Retreat: Coming up With a Theme

    How to Plan a Retreat: Coming up With a Theme

    The last time we chatted about how to plan a retreat, we talked a little about the beginning of the process. What kinds of roles you might need, what kinds of things to think about before you jumped in, feet first. If you’d like to tune in to a podcast…

  • How to Fall In Love with The Messy Middle

    How to Fall In Love with The Messy Middle

    As you start to work towards something new in life, you always hit that new, unfamiliar, not so comfortable stage before you hit your stride with it. This is what I have come to call “The Messy Middle,” a term I first saw on a DIY home improvement blog, but quickly…

  • A Love Like That Lights up the Whole Sky

    A Love Like That Lights up the Whole Sky

    The Sun Never Says Even after all this timeThe sun never says to the earth,“You owe Me.”Look what happens withA love like that,It lights the Whole Sky.– Hafiz, from The Gift   I don’t remember the first time I heard this quote, but it has dazzled and amazed me for…

  • What’s in Your Human “Job” Description?

    What’s in Your Human “Job” Description?

    Many times in life, we learn that there are things that define us well beyond our day to day jobs, or our relationships with others. I like to call one of these defining principals our Human Job Description. In my final year at Yale Divinity School, I was named the…