Bigger Than Your Box is 5 Years Old! Also, Here's What I'm Up To.

Bigger Than Your Box is 5!

Ladies and gentlemen, I can't Believe I'm saying this but Bigger Than Your Box is officially 5 years old! Where did the time go!?

I remember writing this album and thinking it would change everything! It did...for me...but not in the ways I had expected. And as wild as it seems, 5 years later I'm so glad I didn't get what I thought I wanted: bigger stages, more days on the road away from home...etc.

Instead I got permission to be bigger than my box - to allow myself to express myself in as many multi-faceted ways as possible - to explore creativity in new ways and be ok with whatever comes next even if it doesn't look like what was.

I didn't know how afraid I was of trying new things. And I began to understand why pushing back against fear and "breaking out" was somehow becoming my life message...and then why talking about love as the only antidote to fear was a natural progression.

Yet at the same time I wholeheartedly miss seeing your familiar faces at concerts, having people sing along, hearing stories in person of how a song has become someone's soundtrack. That is what I really miss.

My whole heart went into the making of this record and it still has my heart. It's the project I am most proud of and I think it will always be my "favorite child" even if I keep songwriting.

I do believe this pause is just a season. I'm not sure when I'll jump back in, but it feels good to rest.

If you want to listen to the album for 'old times' sake (or maybe it's new to you) here's a link to listen on Spotify.

Wearing Love is Alive & Well!

Wearing Love turned 1 year old last month!

I'm pretty thankful for this labor of love and how it has opened new pathways for storytelling.

We got so much feedback from last month's story, "I Could Love Anybody Except my Sister", including a message from a follower saying she was mustering the courage to reach out to her sister who she hasn't talked with in years. It had me thinking about the chain reaction that begins with the catalyst of love and what can happen when someone shares what they've gone through.

I've begun to ask people to send me their stories.

How have you encountered transformational love and reconciliation in your life? If love really does cover a multitue of sins, then, I would love to hear your story of how you've experienced brotherly/sisterly/neighborly love in unexpected places...especially as the world grows colder.

If we share it on the website, we will send you a shirt as a token of our thanks :)

Last but not least...a belated Easter Reflection...

Well folks, I've had a hell of a year. As this song autoplayed on my bluetooth last week, I couldn't help but move...something i haven't done much since early 2022. I don't know what it is about suffering that makes some of us want to throw out everything we know and others of us cling even tighter to our convictions. I can say I've done both this past year. I lost my joy and my song and my dance. I am slowly reclaiming them. I moved and I moved and i began remembering the joy I feel when i move. And as I listened closely, i realized the words were the very thing God has been teaching me through a journey like no other. Again, i don't know what it is about suffering...but it teaches you who you really are. And that is the message of the cross: the sacrifice of suffering somehow brings new life that can come by no other means. Enjoy my bootleg video.

Thanks for reading!

With love,

Joy