We got Joy backwards
Hello beautiful friend,
Recently, the world has been feeling heavy.
The noise, the uncertainty, the mental list that starts before your feet hit the floor. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, you still have to show up — for your people, your work, your life.
I've been sitting with a verse lately: “the joy of the Lord is your strength”. And I keep turning it over, because it doesn’t make sense. Joy is often associated with a feeling but feelings rise and fall depending on the circumstances. And then we’re taught that strength comes before joy. That we earn joy after we’ve endured enough, worked enough, proven enough.
But this suggests something softer. Stranger, even.
That joy is not a reward.
It’s a source.
The kind of joy that isn’t dependent on perfect conditions or everything going right. The kind that shows up anyway—steady, grounding, almost defiant. The kind that lets you breathe deeper. Move slower. Carry things differently. Maybe strength doesn’t always look like holding it all together. Maybe sometimes it looks like letting yourself be held.
This week, consider this your permission to choose joy not as an outcome, but as a starting point.
There’s a different kind of life that unfolds from there.
And it’s stronger than you think.
With Joy,
Beatriz