The Longest Night: Embracing Grief, Celebrating Light

Dearest Joyfuellers,

I am humbled and honored to invite you to join with people all over the world for a sacred intention to co-witness The Longest Night: Embracing Grief, Celebrating  Light on Solstice, Tuesday December 21st, 3:40 pm – 6:30 EST.

I wish I could tell you how it is that I have come to be behind and beside this extraordinary sacred online event, but for now my best understanding is that I keep listening to my heart’s directive and showing up and continuing my devotion with a collective of people who–like me–believe in a different way of being in and of this world. We believe in creating media that is experiential and animating, uplifting and connective.

I am in awe. I am grateful, and I am truly and deeply in loving service.

There are many people around the world contributing gifts to this program, including prayers and ceremony from Woman Stands Shining Pat McCabe, Chief Dwaine Perry, Rev. Pippa Jones (One Spirit) and so many others. Loving details have gone into every moment, including music and poetry from Gary Malkin, Kristin Hoffman, Milagros Phillips and Libby Roderick.

With silence, stories, prayers, music, all in a circle of deep listening, we invite you to join us as we gather and form the deeper bonds of love, friendship and community to strengthen us and enlighten us for the times to come.

Bring a candle, and a small bowl/vessel of water to participate in sacred ceremony in our Zoom Room:

https://zoom.us/j/6060001111

Zoom Mtg ID: 606 0001 111

The program begins with the Solstice commemoration of the Global Silent Minute, from 3:40pm EST. Sunset in New York is at 4:32pm that day, as we enter “The Longest Night” inviting all of us to reflect upon our stories as we re-conceive and regenerate our future through recalibrating humanity’s custodianship for our beautiful, blue planet.

All wisdom traditions affirm the importance of giving presence to our loss and grief, both personal and collective. Indigenous traditions and all the world’s religions have various ceremonies to allow grief to be expressed and offer some form of release.

It is important for us to come together as a global community to share this moment of reflection, of sorrow and loss, that we may hold and support each other in our shared grief to acknowledge what is passing as we sense what is emerging – the seeds of the “new” seeking expression.

RSVP to our Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/401393845002717 and discover more details.

Join our Zoom room or watch our livestream on many facebook pages including www.facebook.com/joyfuelway

We are grateful for the gift of your presence.

With love and gratitude,
Becky Suzik, Joyfuel

 

Joyfuel ACTIVATE! a mini playshop for your joy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear HeARTs,
I’m excited to invite you to a mini Joyfuel playshop with my dear friends Noel Marshall and Bob Warner at CoCreators Convergence. You are invited to join us in this Zoom Room https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83114637833 on Thursday September 9th at 8pm EDT for 90 mins of exploration of joy and joy guardianship, with ideas especially for these uncertain times.

Come and consciously explore your own personal relationship with joy, self kindness and creativity. Bring bright colored art supplies (crayons, markers, oil pastels…. whatever you already own, blank paper or a journal and let’s play!

I’ll offer a few expressive heART experiences that may lead to you creating a work of heART that you might enjoy not liking…. heck… you may even enjoy LOVING your creation too.

Come to Co-Creators Convergence and let’s active our joyfuel together!
ABOUT: Becky Suzik believes in the healing powers of expressive arts and stories. As a creativity and joy activist she offers playshops designed to activate creativity while exploring personal narratives about people’s talents/abilities/curiosities. Becky’s company Joyfuel is a mixed-media unforce devoted to sharing and promoting kindness, creativity and JOY in and for the world.
About CoCreators Convergence: CoCreators Convergence is a Barbara Marx Hubbard legacy group dedicated to giving our unique gift to the shift in Humanity. This dynamic, open-hearted hub gathers every every Thursday to converse co-creatively. Visit their website to learn more about this remarkable collective on the forefront of creative collaboration towards healing humans and our earth. http://www.cocreatorsconvergence.com .

Hope you can join the JOY!
Love. love. LOVE!
becky xo

Joyfuel Saraswati Playshop, can you come and play?

art by Sue Halstenberg

Dear Joyfuellers,
It’s time to shine and play together in a zoom-based playshop devoted to YOUR creativity and JOY and a creativity goddess, Saraswati…. Can you join us?
Who:    YOU are invited.
What:   2 hours of creative play and expressive heART exploration through listening to stories, music, movement and expressing our own creative nature. (No previous art making experience necessary. Nothing is required but an open heART. Bring whatever art supplies you might enJOY playing with. More details will be shared with friends who register.)
When:   Sunday August 1st, 7pm to 9pm EDT (New York timezone) and/or Monday August 2nd, 11am to 1pm EDT. (Come to ONE or BOTH.)
 
Where:  Join us from YOUR place in our world, in Becky’s zoom room. (This is a private event and will NOT be livestreamed.)

Why:    Joyfuel Playshops provide time and space to rekindle and express your creative nature, perhaps meet some new friends, and make something of meaning and/or beauty that did not previously exist! Come to dance, enJOY music, hear a few stories and be inspired by a Goddess of Creativity, Art, Music, Words–Saraswati!What’s NEXT? RSVP by emailing me to let me know you can join us for the first or second session–or BOTH, that’s fab too. becky@joyfuel.org

Oooooh and in case you’re wondering….  there is no formal cost but your precious attention. I offer my work in gift economy spectrum with the intention to be as inclusive as possible. I’ll share more during the playshop, but please know you are not required to pay anything. If you choose to gift to me, I am grateful and shall share half of your gift with an organization doing worldchanging work.
so much LOVE for your JOY,

The Joyfuel Kindcast and the meaning of Santa Claus

Dear Joyfuellers,

To end the year off in JOY I wanted to share the latest Joyfuel Kindcast with you, to remind us all of the beauty, magic and wonder of the personification of Christmas, it’s Santa Claus himself. It was such a joy to spend this special time together and to discover enchanting secrets from Father Christmas, and the magic behind the magic. I hope you too, enJOY!

 

It has been an extraordinary year together, apart. I have profound gratitude for the gift of your presence in the world and in my life, and vow to continue to contribute to news and media in ways that uplift, honor, celebrate the truths of being human and the things that offer opportunities to unite us through stories and mutual understanding.

I have been considering 2021 and the intentions I hold for my work with Joyfuel. This past year found me dropping and re-imagining my own understanding of what social media and communications could look like. I trust 2021 will continue to grow all of us closer to one another, towards more fully realizing our very real dependence on each other and our earth. Each and every person on earth matters and is significant to the new story the earth is beckoning us to imagine and live together.

Thank you for watching, listening and engaging in the multitude of ways you have this past year. I am so grateful for your views,  comments, likes–your attention and presence,  and to those of you who have given money gift support through our Patreon Joyfuel page, thank you.

If you have ideas or suggestions for the future of Joyfuel please do get in touch…. I’d love to hear from you.

In kindness, creativity and joy for you–for all of us,
Becky xoxo

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Joyfuel Kindcast musician Pushkara Sally Ashford

dear ones,

On my journey to reclaiming my personal joy I made a conscious decision to bring people and experiences into my life that brought me joy— daily. Today I would like to extend an opportunity worthy of your attention and time— for your JOY!

Check out the Joyfuel kindcast – with Pushkara Sally Ashford who shares her journey as a singer who lost her voice and went on to find her soul. Pushkara is a peace activist, is 80 years old and lives on Whidbey Island in Washington state. Please join us for about 70 mins and comment in the chat and offer your own reflections on her remarkable life story, and her music which is totally UPlifting and beautiful!  (Visit the Joyfuel YouTube Channel here and SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/user/monkeychimonkeydo/videos .)

This sounds like joy to me.

with so much love for our joy… becky

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Caravan of Unity North Carolina

Dearest Joyfuellers,

The Caravan of Unity has made it’s way across the United States, embarking from Grace Cathedral California on August 28 and now, it’s 10th stop is in Raleigh North Carolina, my hometown, and will conclude this Tuesday September 29 in Washington, DC exactly where Dr. King sang his I Have a Dream Speech, some 57 years ago.

Super grateful to have been connected with this amazing event and want to invite you to join me in a Zoom Room to watch it together. I can’t believe it but it’s in less than four hours: starts at 8pm EDT (NY) but join me at 7:45 pm EDT to get settled for our watch party.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82202302586

Here is the program lineup. You can also watch at various places on the internet but you are very welcome to jump in our zoom room.

Join us for the Caravan of Unity North Carolina event featuring
* Peace Pole Dedications from UU PEACE Fellowship and Planet Peace Affiliates,
* an uplifting message especially for children from Young Community Activists Elijah and Trinity Lee,
*music from the North Carolina Master Chorale,
* volunteerism initiative serving children through NC Guardian ad Litem,
*unity message and poem from NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green,
* inspiring personal empowerment story from Holly McCoy and Nina Magpili-Smith of INtangibles, Durham NC
and prayers from May Peace Prevail on Earth, Global Silent Minute and so much more.

Join us in our Zoom Room at 7:45 and watch together at 8pm EDT!
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82202302586

Broadcasting from Peace Weekend https://peaceweekend.org and https://facebook.com/peaceweekend

We are committed to taking loving and peaceful actions toward co-creating a world of peace, justice, freedom… and joy for all. And I am committed to telling stories of creativity, kindness and joy… stories that unify us while honoring our diversities.

with so much love for our joy,
becky

Joy & Kindness Panel at World UNITY Week

Dear Joyfuellers,

Less than two weeks ago I had an extraordinary opportunity to be a part of World UNITY Week, a week-long global collaborative celebrating the contributions and ideas of thinkers and seekers around the world… events and offerings committed to deep listening and learning  to collaborate on healing solutions our earth and humanity deserves and needs.

Joyfuel partnered with so many inspiring organizations. I was behind the scenes of many presentations and even produced  several Joyfuel programs including a wonderful panel discussion about JOY and Kindness with Greg Acuna, Joy Resor and Louisa Garrett.

I hope you will find time to listen and experience their deep and meaningful thoughts and ideas about the possibilities of kindness and joy even as we navigate our world in the throes of a global pandemic.

Huge THANKS to our panelists for their contributions and for their willingness to jump in to share this conversation.

 

Louisa Garrett, #MakeKindLoud
● email address: Louisa@makekindloud.com
● Web site(s): http://www.makekindloud.com
● Facebook Fan Page(s): http://www.Facebook.com/MakeKindLoud
http://www.facebook.com/Louisa.garrett1

 

Joy Resor, Joy on Your Shoulders
● email address: joy@joyonyourshoulders.com
● Web site(s): http://www.joyonyourshoulders.com
● Facebook Fan Page: http://www.Facebook.com/Joyonyourshoulders
http://www.facebook.com/joy.resor

 

 

Greg Acuna, Planet Earthlings
● Email: greg@planetearthlings.org
● Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/planetearthlings
● Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/earthlingsorg

Please visit, like and follow their social media to invite positive energy and ideas into your life and your mediastream.

with love for your JOY,
becky

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shift from me to we

(click above to hear an audio description of this post)

Dear Joyfuellers,

2020 is certainly providing a year to potentially reconsider and re-imagine our individual lives while contemplating our interconnectedness and dependencies upon one another.

Since 2014 Joyfuel has run numerous experiments about what it might mean to be a mixed-media agency dedicated to kindness, creativity and joy: In-person and online ePlayshops, social media Mindful Moments, and Joyfuel Kindcasts–each Joyfuel project has intended participant exploration of how we might open to play and generate ideas towards activating greater joy in humans.

As founder and lead joy activist at Joyfuel, I view 2020 as the year we discover together how to collaborate on Joyfuel shifting from “me to we”, by community sourcing new and inspiring content for our readers and subscribers. Perhaps our leading question this year: How do we collaborate and support an emerging community of storytellers committed to telling personal stories of the kindness, creativity and joy that binds us together?

Towards this exploration Joyfuel has been chosen by The Pollination Project to receive a 2020 Impact Grant providing funding towards our basic annual expenses. This funding will allow further investigation and engagement with you and other Joyfuellers around the world, and I am deeply grateful.

I am also deeply concerned by the tidal wave impact of coronavirus creating lockdown and health care crisises, and food shortages all over the world. My heart is fully broken open to find ways to use ideas and funding to inspire and support people in sharing their stories of kindness, and how to find joy amidst sadness and loss.

Holding all of these facts and concerns, Joyfuel is rolling out a new initiative… a new branch is growing on the Joyfuel Tree called JOY CORPS.

Joy Corps aspires to train and support world-wide storytellers for kindness through storytelling workshops and brainstorming sessions supporting people through the ideation process of potentially solving their problems through the power of visual kindness storytelling.

Joy Corps is still very much unfolding and in the works. I hope to offer our first training in early May, and have new storytellers’ kindness stories featured on our media channels very soon.

As these projects are emerging, your financial gifts are greatly appreciated. Please consider a recurring monthly financial gift on Patreon (change amount or cancel anytime), a one-time gift through paypal, or gift a larger amount by check. Every penny will be used to grow and support our community in 2020.

Your ideas and thoughts are welcome. Please comment or hit reply to let me know what you are thinking. We will do this together. Now more than ever we need an agency to speak of the things that unify us in humanity, qualities of kindness, creativity and joy to support us through these challenging times. I am dedicated to you and this work and to finding a way together.

In gratitude for JOY,

Becky Suzik
Joyfuel Founder and Chief Joy Activist

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wisdom of elders Pearl Schechter

dear ones,
tonight i looked at this photo on my web site and thought, dear Pearl, my elder, friend and teacher. the first guest on the Joyfuel Kindcast, and the eldest friend I have. how are you? i sent my thoughts to her, and then went back to my work.
it’s been 18 months since we spoke.

then, 2 minutes later, my phone rang. 9:21 pm this evening. i answered…

“Hello, this is Pearl Schechter. May I speak to Becky?”

I could hardly answer her, for the joy that bubbled up inside!
Pearl is calling me. She had been thinking of me and hoped it wasn’t too late to call.
I literally could barely speak for the first few minutes of our 15 minute call–in shock of her call. It was a gift alike the synchronicity of how we met all those years ago.
Pearl’s connection to me, her response to my mental call to her, and the wisdom of the elders dictates I share Pearl’s interview with you right now. Pearl offers medicine for all of us right now, for our joy and our mental sanity.
Our audio interview appears below. Pearl was on the Joyfuel Kindcast, sharing a beautiful deep conversation that became our very first episode in 2014. We talked about kindness, joy and her husband’s wisdom “Never worry in advance.”
Please listen and let me know how she makes you feel. Let me know any questions or messages you might have for Pearl.
And please hold Pearl in your thoughts and pray with me for Pearl’s safety. Let’s take seriously the warnings and advice to stay home and flatten the curve of Covid-19.  Pearl told me tonight she hopes to turn 101 in a few months.  We need to protect and care for our world’s most vulnerable, like Pearl. Please stay home for Pearl and all the older people (and those at risk) whom we love. By staying home you will never know how many people you might save, but we WILL save lives for certain, by staying home together.
<3 becky
#mediaforjoyfuel #mediaforjoy #joymatters #joyfuel #wisdomofelders #flattenthecurve

☼ (◠‿◠* E4 Liz Buechele

The Joyfuel Kindcast with Liz Buechele:
The Smile Project

In this episode Becky Suzik talks with writer, speaker, roadtripper and kindness activitist Liz Buechele, and shares a deep conversation about the intricacies and challenges of cultivating JOY when our heart is breaking, in a world that is hurting.

Liz works in the non-profit sector and is the founder of the Smile Project, a non-profit organization spreading happiness through intentional acts of kindness and empowering young people to create kindness clubs in their communities. She has found an extraordinary way to combine her passions for writing, traveling and meeting kind people, spreading joy and kindness through her daily social media posts capturing where she finds happiness.

Liz has been writing Happiness Is posts for 8 years. Tomorrow–January 25, 2020– she will share a post worthy of celebrating, her 3000th consecutive post for happiness!

Links mentioned on the Kindcast

SPARK

#SmileProjectRoadTrip

Happiness is database

The Smile Project on Facebook

The Smile Project on Instagram 

The Smile Project on Twitter

Email Liz 

Music on the Program

Show theme Song “Being Kind” by Nimo Patel

CLICK HERE Record YOUR Voice Mail MESSAGE
on The Joyline

Questions, feedback or suggestions for our program? Get in touch using the JOYLINE! or email me becky@joyfuel.org

I am so grateful for our growing Joyfuel Community. If you enJOYed the show, please  share with your friends and family. You can leave a review on iTunes  or Facebook page. If you’d like to help me grow MORE Joyfuel projects, please gift money fertilizer by becoming a Patreon contributor (monthly recurring donations, opt in and out anytime) or gift one-time contribution through paypay or venmo. We are building Joyfuel together.

Thank you for listening and for all you do to spread kindness!

with love for your JOY,

 

 

❤️ Thank you for fueling JOYFUEL through
Patreon or gifts through PayPal ❤️ 

 

Other ways to listen:

creativity and the headvoices that lie

Dear Ones, Please join me for 28 days of creative play! Joyfuel HeARTs is open for “registration”. Registering means I will send you creative, joyfuelled messages for 28 days. (Or however many days we have left when you register.)

Watch this video to hear what I believe about you (and me) and the voices in our head.

Want to come and play? If so, register here.

much love for your JOY!
<3 becky