A love note to The Joy UP from beautiful and loving Jenny who is a constant voice of hope and inspiration in our tribe. If you need someone to hold space, light a candle or send a blessing, Jenny will probably have done so before you even asked. Meet Jenny and the 100 other women in the tribe after signing up for the joy up, which is always pay-what-feels-good.
Please welcome a beautiful voice from the tribe and take a moment to leave a comment down below. It is such a brave thing to share your voice.
I had just finished a cleanse with a someone I had met on Facebook. She happened to post a link to something called a Joy Up. I followed the link, curious. I was in a scary, depressed, anxious place, being in the middle of a divorce from my husband of 15 years, trying to co-parent in healthy way with someone that I could barely look in the face at times, working full time on the night shift, seeing money sift through my fingers like grains of sand and still wondering how I was going to pay this bill or that bill on time.
So back to the link … On the video appeared this radiant pixie with sparkling eyes asking me for 10 days. Can you increase the amount of joy in your life in just 10 days? That was her question. Her challenge. I told myself that I had nothing to lose, and bless her, it was pay what you can, so I signed up.
For some reason at that time in my life, everything seemed to overwhelm me. I know what you’re thinking … How could a simple e-mail once a day for 10 days be overwhelming? Dunno, but it was. I had joined the Facebook group associated with the Joy Up and was meeting some amazing, out of this world, salve to my soul women, especially that little pixie, Hannah!
Yet 6 or 7 days in, it was nagging me that I had yet to read the any of the e-mails or watch any of the videos that Hannah had put her heart and soul into. So I took a couple of hours to myself, went to a coffee shop and caught up. I watched a couple of the videos twice, three times, with tears rolling down my face.
Later, when I confessed to the group how I had gotten behind in the e-mails and what I had done, I was met with love, acceptance, and many echoes of “that’s the way you were meant to do it”, even from Hannah. Wow.
I have never had many friends and some of the ones I did have scattered after my divorce. Just were not there. One was so vocal in her opposition about her deep conviction that I was doing the wrong thing in divorcing my husband and would be sorry later for the damage I was doing to my child. I had the sense a few didn’t know who they “belonged to” – me or him. And a few are still around as long as we don’t discuss the divorce.
When I began to open my heart and soul to these beautiful women in what I have come to call my tribe I realized that such judgment and condemnation for my actions and for me, for that matter, was not universal. It was so incredibly healing. I have done my fair share of seeking out and needing support from the group and as I type this, tears of gratitude are slipping down my cheek remembering so many encouraging words and messages sent my way. But it goes both ways. I would do anything in my physical power for ANY woman in this group.
It seems like almost every day someone in the tribe comes to mind, and I know they must be on my mind for a reason. So I hold them in my heart for the day.
I am living proof that you can increase the amount of joy in your life in just 10 days and proof that JOY can find a home in your heart and not just be a visitor, no matter what your circumstance may be. Thank you, Hannah.
Jenny Parrenin is proud to be the mama to Amelia Grace, the most exquisite, loving, and beautiful human being that I know. I work nights in an urban hospital-based blood bank and having just turned 40, welcome this new decade with open arms. I can’t wait to see what the future holds. I know it is going to be good!
