Welcome to This Joy-Filled Life, a place to celebrate all life has to offer – the good, the difficult, the painful, all of it. Every moment brings us closer to full joy; I hope you will celebrate with me.

Joie de vivre
a French phrase often used to express a cheerful enjoyment of life, an exultation of spirit.
noun: a feeling of happiness or excitement about life

Hi, I’m Leslie. I’m mother to two daughters and a son, and wife to a really great guy. I started this blog as a reminder to change the toilet paper and then I just kept going.

After 4 decades around the sun, I continually seek to find joy in the everyday, in the extraordinary and in the mundane. This life we are given, our one beautiful life, is full of goodness, passion, heartache, and pain. Not all of it is joyful, heavens no! But in it can be found joy.

My life has followed the track of an epic roller coaster, with ups as high as the heavens and lows painful enough to break a spirit. Yet, God has granted me joy upon joy.

• a happy childhood
• a love-filled marriage
• healthy children
• an extended family who relishes in time spent together
• a church community that supports and loves us as we grow

But He also walked with me through many dark days.

• a tumor that threatened to steal my fiancé before we could say “I do”
• difficult career situations that consumed me and left my soul too dry to care
• infertility and miscarriage
• a doctor’s arrogant omission that almost killed me during my daughter’s birth and the PTSD that followed
• a mission trip to the third world that broke me open until my heart was irreparable

This blog is where I break it all down. Most of my experiences I’m happy to share so that I, and others, may find healing. Other experiences will stay tucked deep in my heart where only my God will find them. But always, I will be real.

Everyday I have the choice, as do you on your own epic ride. I can wallow in the pain life is guaranteed to bring again and again. Or I can embrace the beauty, look for that silver lining, and find joy in the challenge. Sharing ourselves and that which fills us brings us all closer, helps us see the humanity in one another. And isn’t that all the more reason to celebrate?

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
    but joy comes with the morning.
Psalm 30:5

Let’s build a joy-filled community right here!

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Won’t you join me as we celebrate this joy-filled life?