I Journey with Joy

There’s a moment every morning, just before my first sip of coffee, when the quiet hum of the world begins to stretch awake. The sun peeks through the blinds, scattering light like confetti across the room. It’s stillness, color and pattern and in that moment, even though I am miles from the one I love, I feel joy.

But not the loud, carnival kind of joy. Not the kind that bursts open like fireworks. No, this is the quieter kind. It’s the joy of noticing. The joy that comes from seeing color where there could have been gray. The joy of choosing vibrancy, even when your heart aches.

The Space Between

Love stretched across distance is an odd kind of geography. It’s not marked by mountains or borders, but by moments; the ping of a text message, the warmth of a memory, the LOL moment when you recall that last facetime conversation, and the pause before sleep when you whisper to the moon, “Goodnight, babe.”

Whenever I am away from the heartbeat of my life in Eureka Springs, I pack more than luggage. I carry hope, longing, and a deep desire to keep joy alive, even from afar.

At first, my surroundings were beige, in spirit and in design. Work was demanding, days were long, and every sunset felt like a reminder of what I was missing. It all felt colorless.

But, as I have come to learn, joy doesn’t arrive by circumstance ... it’s designed. It’s curated. It’s invited in.

So, I began to be intentional. One day, I decided that it was time to paint my world with small, deliberate acts of joy.

Color as Connection

It started with a simple tea towel that I bought with a big, bright, brown mushroom on it. Now, for those of you that really know me, mushrooms are just not my thing. But, with this tea towel, it wasn't just about the mushroom, it was also the words accompanying the mushroom - "Let that shiitake go!"

Bright, unapologetically cheerful, witty ... I had to have it. A small rebellion against loneliness. So now, when I feel a tinge of the lonely vibe, I think, "Let that shiitake go!"

And I do. I meditate. I fill my heart with the love I get from him. I feel better.

Then, when I felt the urge to sit down and blog, I perched up to my new IKEA desk. This was when I had a spark of creativity. I thought, what if I named joyful things like they name the products at IKEA?

My desk is now named, BLÖGGÖ, by the way.

Then, after shiitake, came the rust-colored sleeper sofa, I call RUSTY ... followed by a coral notebook (BLÄNCHETTE) and a vase filled with sunflowers (SÖNNY.) I swear, there are days when it sounds like Sonny is humming a tune in the afternoon light.

These weren’t just decor choices with joyful IKEA-like names. They're lifelines. Each became a stand-in for affection, a tangible reminder that joy, like love, transcends geography. That joy, like love, is all around me. That joy, like love, is right here inside of me.

"I journey with joy!"

Hey Ma, look at what I found ...

In my never-ending search for joy, and in the hours upon hours of research I have spent learning about ways to conjure and spot joy, I landed on the discovery that round shapes, vibrant colors, sound, textures, patterns and natural light awaken something ancient and universal within us. They remind us that we’re alive. So, I've made it my mission to find joyful aesthetics wherever possible.

I'm a joy-hound. A joy-spotter.

• The soft pink of dawn reflecting off a glass building.

• The rainbow sprinkles on my ice cream cone.

• The way a coworker’s laughter bounces around the gray office and echoes down the hall.

• The familiar song that playing on a café speaker just when I need to hear it.

Joy is my bridge.

Designing for the Heart

I’ve also learned that the heart, much like a home, needs good design. When love must stretch across miles, we must build spaces, physical, spiritual and emotional, that sustain it.

For me, that meant transforming the space around me into a sanctuary of joy and connection. A photo on the kitchen counter of the two of us, caught mid-laughter at a friend's wedding in Dallas (LÄFSTÄ.) A succulent in a vase with a face on it wearing glasses, reminding me of him, because that vase face (JÖHNNY) reminds him of me. A candle (BURNHÖLM), when burning, emits a scent that we both absolutely love.

These little things, curated intentionally, soften the distance. They remind me that love doesn’t vanish with geography, it evolves.

It becomes color, sound, scent and light. It becomes art and air. It becomes presence, even in absence.

The Joy of Anticipation

Perhaps the most powerful aesthetic of all is anticipation. The knowing that joy is coming, and that love will walk through that front door again in just a week.

I’ve come to see this distance not as a void, but as a canvas. Each day is a brushstroke of discipline, devotion, and of quiet resilience.

And so, I fill my days with the small, sensory pleasures that remind me that beauty is still here, and that joy can coexist with longing.

My glasses formed a heart, and I noticed at the exact right moment in time.

The pop of citrus in my sparkling water. The laughter of strangers. The sun that still rises and sets, faithfully, as if to say, “Keep going. You’re both still under the same sky.”

Tethered by Love

To live joyfully while apart from each other is not to deny the ache. It’s to honor it, and to choose, still, to see the light in all things.

My friends, joy is not a byproduct of perfection; it’s the texture of being alive. And in my own journey, tethered by love, I’ve learned that joy is not something we stumble upon.

It’s something we create.

Through color, through care, through noticing. Through staying open to the small, brilliant things, the pinks and yellows, blues and even beige and gray ... all of it, reminds us we are all connected, no matter where we are.

Because love, after all, is the most vivid color in our life, and joy lives everywhere.

“AVSTÅNDET GÖR KÄRLEKEN STARKARE." (Distance makes love stronger.)❤️