Back in my happiest place this weekend, friends! Wishing us all to find our joy every day. Wishing us all to lower our threshold for feeling it, internalizing it, expressing, sharing, and spreading it. We all need all the joy we can get these days… all days.
When I see you joyous my heart sings in joy right there with you! To know you are happy, at least in that moment, eases my mind so much.
2. Nature Music Your children Your friends Whatever brings you the most joy, I wish it on you in oodles and loads! More, more more!
3. What’s on the agenda today? I hope there are multiple things you look forward to! You can tell by the smile they bring when you anticipate! 🙂
4. What do we need to live a joyful life? I think our relationships are key. So I wish you people who open up your mind and heart for joy joy joy!
5. Where do you feel joy in your body? May that part of you be always open and bright, a vessel and a conduit for as much joy as you can handle!
6. The places, the people, the activities, challenges, feelings, memories, and events that bring you joy–may you immerse regularly!
7. Sometimes in life joy escapes us. But let us never lose hope that it will return to us eventually. We can be patient and whistle for it! 🙂
8. Sometimes joy is small. It can be just being okay and appreciating what’s good. The more we can feel joy at the small stuff, the more joyous life is!
9. OH hey FOOD! that is one of the MOST JOYOUS things in life, no? May you eat, drink, and be merry merry every day!
10. May your joy find you from the inside every day. May it connect you with everything that amplifies itself — all of us are better for it! Peace, dear one
11. That smile that reaches and crinkles your eyes — oh my gosh it just lights up the room! May your life stimulate it often and well!
12. How do we describe joy? Can we really articulate it? Even if not, it’s okay – because we can relate. We know it, share it, amplify it together.
Shake it, friends! What rhythms find you today? How will you sway those hips and sashay those steps out on the street? I wish for us all to let loose a little more, offering our inner and outer music to one another more routinely, normalizing dancing through our activities of daily living. Standing desks are the best for this–what a great invention!
Dancey You. Full of joy. Cardio in work clothes. Let’s go.
When words fail us, may music step up and connect us through rhythmic movement — We can dance rather than talk our way to our togetherness.
2. What’s the ideal rhythm for your gait? Once you find it, you can curate your street walking playlist. Every day is more fun after that!
3. May life bring you dance partners of all kinds, who will teach you new steps and broaden your world in the most musical ways!
4. What are your playlists? Who do you invite to share each? May you have dance partners stashed all over your life!
5. May songs from your formative years visit you when you least expect them, stirring you out of your torpor and moving your bottom deliciously!
6. Ever seen that lady who walks on the treadmill like it’s a fashion runway and her personal theme song plays in her ears? I wanna be her.
7. What is the next activity that you can convert happily into a dance? Who can you pull onto your makeshift dance floor?
8. Have you ever watched those dance improv contests? How can we incorporate dancing into our creative lives? Let’s mooove!
9. OH I just wish for the freest part of your spirit to fly ahead of your body and lead the latter in the funnest choreography!
10. When you feel that familiar fatigue of post-lunch workday lag, may a favorite song pop into your head and overtake your body!
11. May we all have multiple chances to dance freely, joyfully, and shamelessly to our favorite music every day!
12. This one is for Dancey Shane! Thank you for your kitchen boogy videos–they always make our days and inspire our own jams!
I like these lighthearted Love Note days. Sometimes we just need to shake it out and have fun. Happy weekend, friends– More tomorrow!
Friend pointed me to Andy Borowitz’s Facebook post (11/18/2025) where he shares the transcript of Katie Johnson’s (pseudonym) testimony for a lawsuit she brought against Donald Trump in 2016 for allegedly raping her when she was 13. This led me to Borowitz’s Substack post in which he interviews Kate Manne and discusses the allegations, the media’s tepid response, and the implications of both. Manne states, “Is this proof beyond a reasonable doubt? No. Is this something which we can be absolutely confident happened? I don’t think so. But those are legal standards, not moral ones, and they’re not epistemic ones either. Can we say, if we’re assessing the evidence soberly, that what she says is credible, and can I say I believe her? Absolutely.”
I shared Tanya Eby’s Facebook post (11/19/2025) with my own caption, “Fuck. Yes. I am Piggy. Hear me fucking ROAR” in response to her call, “For every woman out there, for anyone who has ever been abused, for every reporter who is trying to tell the truth, this is the time to embrace your own inner Miss Piggy and speak the truth out loud. Stay centered. Stay rooted. Ask the questions. Embrace your marvelous.”
Harry Shannon posted this on his Instagram page (11/19/2025): “Women reporters will ask Trump difficult questions and suffer his insults while the men in the room look like timid little puppies afraid to upset their master. Are there no men in Washington?” The last sentence landed sideways on me. I understand where it comes from, and it further reinforces our cultural gender dichotomy. Trump’s misogyny and our culture’s tolerance of it is intrinsic by now. And it’s up to all of us, not just men or women, to stand up to it. We are human, and none of us should tolerate for any of us to be treated this way, or for the ‘leader’ of the free world to set such a toxic example.
I could write a dozen Love Notes for Anger. Anger can be an appropriate and healthy response to violations of our core values. But it’s not the vibration I want to emit tonight. What we do with our rage is what matters. And right now the best thing I can think of is to express (and then act productively on) my solidarity with our shared humanity. Whenever I make statements like this I think of Donald Trump, and challenge myself to include him, the most despicable human I can think of right now, in my calls for compassion, kindness, empathy, generosity, etc. 99.5% of me has lost all hope for reconciling his character, and I also believe in miracles. So until we witness divine intervention or something akin, I choose to direct my time, energy, and resources toward the light, like that scene in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince when Dumbledore dies and folks at Hogwarts aim their lit wands to the sky to dissipate the Dark Lord’s black cloud.
We Are Piggy. We’ Got This:
You are worthy of dignity and respect just by virtue of your existence. May I train the fortitude to remind those who deny you this.
2. The defender of humaneness in me calls to the defender of humaneness in you. May we march forward, protecting HUMANITY.
3. I see you. Your humanity is my humanity. May I never forget, and stand up for you when you need me.
4. The first challenger gets dismissed. May the rest of us step up, shoulder to shoulder, and brave the backlash–TOGETHER. Our strength is synergistic.
5. When we see someone’s humanity attacked, may we not only not participate, but may we find the courage to counter. Resist firmly and non-adversarially. We can do it.
6. My Why is connection. My Just Cause is healing relationships and maximizing the greater good through mutual respect. How can we work together this way?
7. Hurt people hurt people, as they say. Wow, LOTS of hurt people walking around now. May you heal your hurt and turn the tide around in your little corner. I hold you up.
8. May your inner Miss Piggy shine. Never let anyone diminish your awesomeness. Own your strength and toss that hair like a queen.
9. We may think love makes us weak and vulnerable. But what greater force is there to drive sacrifice and sustained advocacy? Stoke the love. Stand strong.
10. How do you need me to show up for you? May I do it bravely, lovingly, and with conviction.
11. I know I take my privilege for granted. Your struggles affect me, even if I don’t see it. May I work for your freedom from the worst of our culture.
12. When I witness abuse, may I be a brave upstander and may you join me, leading others to follow.
These turned out better than I anticipated. The call to unity is strong. Let us answer in kind.
Healing Through Connection 