These modules then began to be put into a four part simplified series, “Joyful Living Level 1 & 2” for those who wish to nurture their own hearts, homes and families, as they gracefully transition back into a mindset of offering love, joy and peace to themselves and their own families.
I discovered that the more I tenderly nurtured others and taught them how to nurture their own hearts and families, the more I found my own heart being made whole in the process!
Serving our fellowman is a divine principle, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” But so is, “Loving ourselves as we love our neighbors.” The more I gave love to those who stood in need of comfort from my own wounded heart, the more I felt my ability and capacity to love again being mended, healed, and rekindled too! I was discovering the perfect way to find my happily forevermore which came in offering loving service to my fellowman, as well as to myself!
I continued reminiscing through the weeks following that hair appointment. I recalled how suffering from broken heartedness had compelled me to go in search of others who were suffering from the same. This led me to speak and sing to inmates at the prison, to creating “Joy in the Mourning”, a grief program for four mortuaries for the follow-up aftercare of grieving families who had lost loved ones, to ministering at Veteran’s hospitals to forgotten soldiers, to speaking and singing at Community Outreach programs, to reaching the hearts of those who were widowed or divorced, to singing at the State Hospital, to traveling to speak and sing to audiences where the heartbroken were hidden behind welcoming smiles. All I wanted to do was spread love, joy and peace to the world. Serving and ministering to others became my new version of my very own happily ever after.
Carol: and it certainly seems that you addressed all of that and more.
Karyn: The next time I paid a visit to my young hairdresser, we reminisced on our earlier conversation, as she again began to wash my gray away. All hints of wisdom were highlighted again as we talked and laughed.
This time, I pulled up “The Broken Doll” song, written by my dear friend who had allowed me to record it as my very own theme song on YouTube.
This was a song a friend wrote for me, when I was a newly divorced single mom. I had been leaving the next husband a few short months after discovering that he was having an affair with his previous wife. Again, my dreams were dashed and broken and put on hold. I went on to share with my young friend how this song had inspired me to pick up the pieces of my life.
A friend, another singer and songwriter, called me during that grievous time. I mentioned to her, “I just feel like an old broken porcelain doll!” My friend, Wanda, gasped on the other end of the phone. “Karyn! I just finished writing a song for you about a broken doll! I’ve been sitting at my piano for three weeks writing this song for you!”
It was then I knew that God knew my heart even during this crucial time when I was beating myself up for making yet another error in judgment and marrying the wrong guy! He whispered my own feeling “like a broken doll” to a dear singer songwriter friend who turned my sorrow into a song without even knowing what I was going through.
I sent the song via text to my young hairdresser friend. She listened as she continued styling my hair and whispered, “I wish I was talented!”
“Oh, but you are! That’s why I came back to you! You make me feel beautiful!”
We laughed and began exchanging recipes for Mexican food which we found we both have a love for in common. I shared a few healthy snacks with her and the other stylist in the shop, making sure their blood sugar levels didn’t dip on a long day of hairstyling.
Carol: Karyn, that spontaneous visit, conversation, subsequent conversation and memories that they instilled certainly sparked quite a bit for you and for all of us from what you have shared. Thank you.
Karyn: As I woke up the next morning, I wondered how and when I had “arrived” in my new state of happiness. I marveled on my journey with my sweet husband of nearly eight years, after many “foiled” attempts of marriage.
I thanked the heavens above for a beautiful home in a country setting with a flourishing clientele of young moms who receive my massages, after giving birth to new babies at a nearby hospital.
I am living “happily ever after” now, because in the past, I clung tenaciously to the spirit of a resilient heart through my faith in my Divine Creator. I did so by believing that my experiences with unhappiness could help me in my quest to serve and bless others to rediscover true Joy!
Here now are my thoughts and questions to ponder:
1. What “wisdom” have you gleaned through your life’s trial(s) that could benefit someone you know who, in the present moment, may be experiencing a similar challenge(s) in their own life?
2. As you look back on your most challenging life experience, make a list of positive outcomes you have received from having gone through that “sad experience,” for example, more empathetic of others in similar circumstances, etc.
