A Toast to You, Joy. Happy Birthday!

Hiya Pinkies, and Happy Mojo Monday. Today is a very special Mojo Monday because it’s also Pink Editor-in-Chief Joy Mazzola’s birthday (Woot! Woot! Wheeee!!!!) So today’s Mojo Monday post is in honor of her. Sadly, I’m not with her to celebrate today, so I’m writing this instead. Please sing for her, Pinkies. Let’s embarrass the hell out of her and make her feel extra loved today.

Celebrating Joy

When I return, I’m going to celebrate how much I love Joy by taking her to Haight Street, shopping in vintage stores until we find just the right rockin’ outfit, then hitting a dance club somewhere in San Francisco so we can be dancing fools together and whoop it up. I want to jump up and down and spin in circles to let her know how much I value her and treasure the gift she is in my life. Did you Pinkies know that Joy did her own Pleap (Pink leap of faith) by coming to work for Owning Pink. We were a brand new start up with no capital, no contract, and little more than a dream and a not-even-finished website. Joy had a really stable job at UC-Berkeley when I asked her to come on board and help me launch Owning Pink. And she blew my mind when she quit her job and said yes. How do you thank someone for having that kind of faith in you? You don’t. Instead, you go shopping, you go dancing, and you spin around in circles until you’re dizzy with joy (no pun intended).

Honor The People You Love

We don’t do enough of that, you know- celebrating the people we love. We tend to complain when they screw up and bitch about their shortcomings, but how often do we dance with glee in wild elation on behalf of those we love? Not often enough, I think. It’s easy to fall into patterns of negativity with the ones we love the most. We feel safe, so we take them for granted. We don’t need to say I love you, so we forget. But there’s mojo to be had by joyfully loving the special people in your life.

So today, for our Mojo Monday exercise, let’s celebrate!

1. Make a list of the people you most value, paying particular attention to the ones who may be unaware of how much you care.
2. Own your creativity and make a handmade card or buy a really funky one that expresses how you feel.
3. Write a little just-because note, celebrating the person you love. Express yourself without reservation. Don’t hold back. Just open your heart and love.
4. Now do a little dance, sing a song, laugh, make a toast, light a candle- whatever. But honor those people in your heart. Pray for their peace and joy. Know that you are blessed.

Happy Birthday, Joy!

I will start- right here.

Dear Joy,

I can still remember sitting across from you at that writing workshop at Esalen, where you- the pretty, quiet girl with the funky headscarf and the jaw-dropping written words- first walked into my life. Thinking back, it feels divinely guided that we should meet, connect, and continue a friendship that would lead us here. It has been one of the dearest pleasures of my life to learn to know you as you unpeel the onion layers of who you are right in front of me to reveal this sparkly, intuitive, wise, talented, loving, genuine, inspiring gem of a woman. I am in awe- really.

We barely knew each other when I invited you to jump off a cliff with me- and yet we landed together in the lavender-scented river that flows freely, taking us with it. Wasn’t the free fall fun? The journey has been truly magical- purple kangaroos and all. I couldn’t ask for a better sister, friend, and coach to help me manifest the dream of Owning Pink into the living, breathing, thriving being it is today. I feel SO blessed. And so honored to bear witness to the Pinkies we are both becoming.

Today, I celebrate the beautiful unfolding flower that is you. Thank you- for all that you are. From afar, I dance spinny circles, raise my arms over my head, do cartwheels, and raise a toast to you, dear one. When I return, we will do it in real life (look out San Francisco!) Happy birthday, honey. I love you and value you.

Singing the birthday song,

Lissa