On joy

A trusted mentor once gave me some advice for the corporate world.

"Pearl, you wear your heart on your sleeve. It's not good."

I've been thinking about that ever since, and especially in my most challenging moments.

I wondered if he was always right, and I had been walking around with my vitals exposed.

But it's the best I can do today, at the oldest and most experienced I have ever been.

Our world is often driven by fear or pain.

Urgency. Loss. Not good enough.

But lately, my mind switched.

Choose positivity.

At the core, many of us seek love, safety, belonging, and autonomy. These needs endure.

I’ll carry this perspective forward into the year ahead:

To see positives and opportunities for growth.

To consider how love, safety, belonging, and autonomy can be fuel.

To calibrate towards joy.

This is a studio for practice and to learn to practice "along the way".

To keep choosing bravely, whatever unfolds... And to help me explore being human, both dark and light.

I'll be by the fire
Thinking, nothing I've learned can prepare me
For everything else that needs learning
- Kae Tempest, “Firesmoke”