I have a friend named Joy. I was going to change her name for privacy purposes, but, her name is so relevant to this story. And she has given me permission to do so.
Joy is a single mother of a son and daughter, both in their early 20’s. Raising them was an opportunity for her to practice living an entirely different way of life than how she grew up. The life of a conscious creator. Joy became a masterful teacher of being present to life and possibility and allowing life to emerge organically. Joy IS what she orients her mind and her life around.
In December 2018, Joy was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer and given 2 weeks to live. Her daughter, 18 at the time, was also living in crisis. Joy went into immediate treatment, receiving intense rounds of chemo for 6 months, finally receiving a bone marrow transplant in August 2019. Unable to work or receive income above $1000/month (a condition of the health insurance she had at the time), Joy became ‘homeless’- living in low end hotels – and had to ask for donations of $1000 every month for over 2 years in order to just survive. She had to start over every single month, requesting financial support. All while recovering from her bone marrow transplant.
Then, within 6 months of her transplant, the global covid pandemic hit. She was already living in isolation with severe restrictions for sanitary living conditions, which in California makes it impossible to find affordable housing on her budget.
As she grew closer to her 2-year transplant anniversary, Joy decided it was time to make a bold choice for creating a future worth living for.
She stopped raising $1000/month and set up a Go-Fund-Me to raise $58,000 to cover rent, food & necessities, minimal furniture and Uber rides to doctor appointments. The very basics for one year. Since she didn’t have a job or permanent address for 2.5 years, she needed to have enough money in the bank to guarantee she could pay 1 year of rent.
Using her masterful creating skills, every single day since her shocking diagnosis in 2018, here are just some of the ‘miracles’ Joy has created:
- They found Joy a perfect 12 out of 12 bone marrow donor!
- Even with some severe side effects from the transplant, Joy has managed to live independently since leaving the hospital.
- She created $1000/month of donations to survive on every single month for over 2 years.
- She surpassed her Go-Fund-Me goal & fortified her bank account for 1 year!
- She moved to Florida in August 2021, just in time to celebrate her 2-year transplant-aversary in her own 1-bedroom apartment, close to where her daughter (who Joy didn’t see in person for almost 2 years) also now lives!
- Her daughter also moved out of crisis and into a lifestyle of healing and recovery.
- Her son is living his dream life, going to college for dance and working as an aerialist performer, in his own first apartment ever!
- ALL of this during a global pandemic, which often made even getting rides from friends to doctor appointments problematic for her own safety.
Why am I sharing this story? To demonstrate what conscious creating looks like.
Joy’s vision for her life has been to live joyously and creatively, in harmony with the natural world. Her 2018 diagnosis seemed like the antithesis of her life vision. She lived one day (often one hour, one minute) at a time, but always, moving in the direction of her life vision. Of course she had many fearful, agonizing thoughts – about her own life, about her children’s lives (there were serious car accidents, health issues, housing issues, financial issues and more to contend with), and the often dire state of the world. But Joy has tools and practices to bring her focus back to her vision for herself and her life, no matter what is going on. And she uses them continuously.
She also rallied her community.
Having been a teacher and wonderful friend to many, she had a fairly strong group of people she connected with on her social media. But then, another miracle happened! Her community helped expand Joy’s community, bringing in their own friends and family into her circle of support. Joy generously and transparently shared her story on her social media, which became a profound source of inspiration for so many of us. During such hard times globally, we were able to gain a more powerful perspective for living, from witnessing Joy rising to meet her daily challenges in the worst of times in her life.
Life is a work-in-progress. It’s not a performance.
We are all creators and creating is what we do, and we can either do it consciously and create beautiful lives worth living… or … we can let our minds float on the wind and allow ourselves to live unconsciously, focusing our creative energy on whatever grabs our attention in the moment. No wonder the world has so many people suffering from mental illness, addiction, anxiety and depression.
It doesn’t have to be that way for ANY of us! Learning how to be a conscious creator – of your art, your relationships, your life – is worth whatever and however long it takes.
You, too, can create the Miracles of Joy.
Please join our Awakened Artist community in our private Facebook group! We are becoming powerful conscious creators together! https://www.facebook.com/groups/awakenedartistcommunity
**PHOTO credits: A selfie of Joy, from her new apartment in Florida! And a sunset photo she took during her first weeks in Florida… one of her favorite joys in life….sunsets on the beach & taking photos!