Hi everyone. I like to support local authors, artists and creative types and invited Joy Resor to be interviewed here on the Front Porch. I don’t know Joy personally, but from what I can tell she is dedicated to putting positive vibes out into the world and being true to herself. I admire anybody who has the courage to pursue what they believe is their calling.
Please give Joy Resor a warm welcome here on the Front Porch.
I live in the mountains of Brevard, North Carolina, where my soul’s work has evolved after my marriage ended. Through Joy on Your Shoulders, I offer wares of Batik cotton with positive messages, serve clients as their spiritual mentor, facilitate journaling to joy classes, create a free newsletter and last year published Go In Joy! An Alphabetical Adventure, a book of essays and poems inspiring joy.
When I awaken from sleep, in the shower, on a walk in the forest, talking with like-hearted friends, during relaxed, contemplative states, creative ideas arrive for me to live into.
Share a favorite quote:
I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy. – Louise Bogan
I’m reading a book on tools for better speaking, fuel for the journey I feel inside to become an inspirational speaker and I received inspiration today (!) in a class I facilitate to create a journaling companion to my recently published book.
I love the book Callings by Gregg Levoy for its beautiful writing and inspiring energy, and I suspect this rare and wonderful book worked within me, encouraging me onward into the joy I offer today.
I love the raw truth, vulnerability and humor in Carry On, Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life by Glennon Doyle Melton.
I love everything I’ve read by Martha Beck, Elizabeth Gilbert and Jan Phillips, too.
Books and I commune daily and often…how I LOVE reading!
All versions of Hallelujah and Morning Has Broken cause me to become still, close my eyes and deeply breathe, touching my soul with power and awe.
Lily, Lily Rose by John Singer Sargent crazily wowed me when we saw the enormous original in a Boston exhibit. I treasure a poster rendering in my home office.
Each Monet I breathed into at the Musee d-Orsay when we visited Paris.
What were you like as a child?
Sensitive, lanky and a tomboy playing outside until dark mixed in with climbing the flowering crabapple trees in our side yard where I communed with God and the birds on lazy summer afternoons. How I loved playing jacks, freeze tag, jump rope, hop scotch and riding bikes in warm breezes and coloring and board games on rainy days-monopoly, Careers, Operation, The Dating Game, Twister.
On our sun-splashed porch any afternoon, near an abundantly streaming waterfall, walking through a cool, fragrant forest.
I’m grateful to daily write in a gratitude journal and to be as awake as I am to the gifts of this life: to feel breezes, gaze upon Lilies, marvel at drifting cloud shapes. I’m grateful for friends, laughter and serving others in all the ways I’m called.
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Susan Gabriel is an acclaimed southern author who lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Her novels, The Secret Sense of Wildflower (a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012) and Temple Secrets (2015) are Amazon and Nook #1 bestsellers.
I agree Callings is a powerful book. I loved seeing the David too. I got some good ideas from this. Thanks, Joy (and Susan)!
Thank you. So glad to hear you also resonate with Callings, Anne, and that the David wowed you, as well. How fun you received a few ideas for your path, and you’re very welcome. Blessings, Joy