Patron Content:

I hope you’re having a truly blissful Saturday morning. My morning seems to be starting a little slow. I’ve had breakfast, coffee, and a shower but still feel like hunkering down in this cozy little space I’m staying in today. This is my last night here then tomorrow my sister is supposed to have my tiny cabin finished. I’m also still working on building my studio space. I’m so excited to have an 8’x12′ space fully dedicated to yoga, dance, art, and expression.

I’ve lived in tiny spaces a few times in my life, but this space is super tiny. I’m curious to see how it feels. Here are a couple photos from the last few days. I’ve got some exciting concepts I’m working not that I think you’ll enjoy.

From my heart to yours,

Joy

Public Blog Post for Today:

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend”. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

The other day my oldest daughter share a FB post about having to deal with weird men staring at her. A man nearly twice her age responded by sharing his point of view in a deeply intense manner. The final statement on his comment was “CUNT!” I may seem like a super chill woman but damn son. You call my daughter a cunt and we got some serious issues. Being a blogger with such a large readership for a decade has taught me a lot. One of the most valuable lessons about the online world I’ve learned?

How to start an argument online:

Post your opinion and wait…

Another thing I’ve learned is to breathe and calm down before responding. I started typing a response to the man’s post but I could see my daughter’s family and friends posting comment after comment in response to his attack. So I decided to message him rather than join the mob mentality. I messaged him a very eloquent, well spoken response and ended it by saying that I hoped when he had a daughter he would choose his words more wisely. He didn’t respond for a day or two.

When he did, he said he was married and had a daughter, then went on to pretty much scream (through online words) at me about his own suffering. I responded by telling him that, I was very sorry about the experiences he had suffered through, but that did not give him the right to attack other people in such a hurtful and disrespectful manner. His response? “Go kill yourself bitch!” I said, “Wow, did you legit tell me to kill myself? You must be a very angry man.” He then unleashed some curse words and signed off. I sent him a kissy face emoji with the word Peace. then hit the mute conversation button.

I took a few deep breaths and decided to let it go. A few hours later, I got a Facebook messenger notification. It was him. Again. I guess the mute button didn’t work or I was too pissed and didn’t hit it properly. What he wrote next moved me. It was a few paragraphs apologizing. The same type of exchanges unfold online every. Single. Day. I experience a small amount of this and I think people believe it’s because I’m often naked. I honestly don’t think that makes a difference. I may get a slightly more sexual tone in some of the negative responses but honestly, this happened to me long before I got naked publicly.

I won’t dive deeper into this topic today. It’s a bit heavy for a beautiful Saturday morning discussion. I will however say this. It’s not always the case, but sometimes, a person who lashes out with such intensity and anger is a wounded soul themselves. Being wounded does NOT justify behaving in such a disrespectful and hurtful manner. But if those of us who choose to speak out against this type of behaviour do so from a place of rage rather than love, how are we any better?

Food for thought.

From my heart to yours,

Joy