Episode 40: Thank you for being a friend

Traveled down a road and back again...

At the end of last year, I took a solo trip to New York City. 2022 was really hard on me for many reasons, and I lost my inspiration and motivation for my work in a way I hadn’t ever felt. So I spent a long weekend away in hopes for some space for my brain to rest, get inspired, and feel rejuvenated. 

I was expecting that the creative side of me would come back with the artistic visions and ideas that I was missing to boost the creativity within me that felt like it was hopelessly dwindling away. But what I discovered instead was a new purpose I wasn’t expecting.

While in one of my favorite cities, I spent half of it alone wandering my favorite neighborhoods, people watching, and window shopping. I spent the other half catching up with long-distance friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. During dinners, lunches, or coffee catch-ups, every single conversation had one common theme—mental health. We talked about those we knew who had sadly taken their lives that year, we talked about how our common cultures didn’t have framework for any type of conversation around mental health, we talked about parentings and how we can show up for our kids in ways that prior generations didn’t know about, and we discussed the amazing changes that can be made when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, ask for help, and be of help to others.

And just when I wasn’t yet ready to make this connection, a stranger stopped me on the street in Brooklyn just as I was exciting the subway. She said she had been following my work for years and wanted to say hello. She was visiting New York from out of town, too. Sometimes when I meet those who are kind enough to stay hello to me in real life, I ask if they work in art or design because I’m so curious to see what our connection could be. And she responded, “Oh I’m a therapist in Germany!”

Wow.

I didn’t know what this all meant or how I would use these moments and do something with them. After all, I’m no mental health expert. But that trip sparked something inside me that eventually led to testing out a place to express these ideas, feelings, and thoughts. Over the next few months that turned into this Substack.

I didn’t totally know what I would do with this space when I started it back in March, and I honestly still don’t know what it will be. But my goal was to just start the conversations that I didn’t feel like we were having. I describe these essays my mental health musings, yet it’s not always about therapy, anxiety, or depression. It’s also about the everyday feelings and experiences we are having that make us feel less alone if we talk about them.

So I want to thank you for being here and for joining this space in whatever capacity you have chosen to.

Thanks for being a friend, and I look forward to having more conversations with you in 2024.

-Joy

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Brownstone with lush plants image created by me with Midjourney AI.