A Love Letter to Five Years — And My Five Favorite Posts
Five years ago, I hit publish on my very first blog post.
Time is so warped sometimes.
As kids, it moves at the pace of molasses. Being told something was two weeks away felt like it might as well be ten years.
Then, sometime around when you start doing more taking care of yourself as an early adult, it seems to speed up to normal—whatever that means! At the age of thirty one now, I now feel like something being two weeks away comes within a quick blink of my eye.
Somewhere along the way, I heard someone say they have the belief that there is enough time because time moves slowly.
When I first started this space back in 2021, I recognized that affirmation down to my very bones. Those COVID years, as many can attest, was like we were back to being little children with each day was inching along like a worm.
Those messy months between 2020 and 2022 had this utmost strange timeline to them; we were all stuck indoors, travel was basically negligible, and so we really had not other choice than to live presently.
While we can’t make time slow down—oh, how I wish we could sometimes!—perhaps the secret to that belief system about time moving slowly is… if we are fully in each moment we are living, time does feel like it moves a bit slower in many ways.
These past five years with this space has really felt like that. While I wasn’t always the most present in my life (human over here!) I feel like I can say without exaggeration, this Ever Joyfilled space was like being in this beautiful little cocoon of time moving in the most wonderful of ways.
When I first started in 2021, I truly wanted to make it a space where I could share the things that were helping me find joy after hitting the roughest of patches in my life the prior year. I had hopes that maybe someone else feeling like I was could find some inspiration and desire to seek out joy when life is feeling hard.
When I started traveling again in 2022, I remember being so excited to share this new world, literally & figuratively, I was embarking to. And then, I started wanting to interview people in my life about what joy meant to them in 2023. Following that, in 2023/2024, I relished in focusing on the seasons of the year.
This space has been this lovely little spot where time feels kind, where I can take my time in evolving, where I feel like I am becoming more and more me with each passing day.
What a priceless gift these past five years have been.
I can’t wait to see what the next five bring.
My Favorites Over the Years:
Year 1.) Beyond Happiness: Unpacking the True Meaning of Joy and Why It Matters: My very first post. I was so scared to hit publish with it, but it still remains one of favorite posts ever simply because it it reminds me that to go after your dreams… you need to take that leap of faith— even when it’s scary.
Year 2.) How to Nurture Your Soul When the World Weighs Heavy: I’ll always smile when I think of this post. I was sitting in my Austin AirBnB after posting it wondering what I was doing (was the whole going after your dreams thing even worth it?) when I got a text from mom telling me how this post felt like I really was finding my voice in this whole blogging world. It was then that I realized… I felt the same. And, yeah, it is worth it.
Year 3.) How to Find Joy in Grief: Part 2- Global Perspectives on Death and Healing: I still look at this post with so much love. I wrote in memory of a dear family member who passed away, and it felt like it healed some of the grief in writing it for him. It has since changed my take on death and the grief it brings with it.
Year 4.) The Joyfilled People Series: Meet Shannon: This post felt extra special to me. I loved the interview format I started with it and getting to share the joy of one of my dearest friends, Shannon, with the world.
Year 5.) The Ever Diaries: Hello, April: Of all the things I have written over the years in this space, there is just something about the Ever Diaries which hold such a special place within my heart. Perhaps it was because—for many years—this was exclusively written for my email subscribers. It felt more authentic and personal writing it for that little community. When I switched over to Substack this year, I realized it was time to change and bring The Ever Diaries over to Substack, too. This post was the inaugural Ever Diaries here on Substack.
Thank you for coming along the journey with me. It means more than you’ll ever know.
Joyfully,
Claire