Hi! I’m Susan!
Welcome to a Kindler of Joy. Let me tell you a little bit about myself.
I am an Orthodox Christian, a deacon’s wife, a mother, a wanna-be farmer and God-willing, and an aspiring Kindler of Joy.
I have been married for 26 years (4-8-94) and am mother to four beautiful joys. They are not little anymore but rather young adults. My youngest is 18, then we have 20, 21 and 24. We live on a cute little hobby farm where we have dabbled in a little “farm” kind of fun. We’ve tried our hand at milk goats, raising pork, chickens, turkeys and ducks. We still have a small flock of chickens that give us our daily eggs and a mating pair of ducks. We’ve learned to raise our own meat! This is the best way to eat meat if you are going to eat it at all. They are so happy! I’ve loved each adventure we’ve had and keep saying “I’ll do that again someday!” We have a fairly decent sized garden and it is one of my favorite places to be.
We converted to the Eastern Orthodox faith 19 years ago at Nativity. It was truly the best decision we have ever made in our lives. In those 19 years I have grown more in my Christian faith than in all my life. The risen Christ is central to my life and truly is the main reason why this blog has even begun.
I want to be a kindler of joy. During my 47th year of life, as my youngest turned 15 and my oldest turned 21, it became real apparent to me how truly negative I had become. Or maybe I had always been that way and God was just slowly peeling the layers off my eyes to reveal to me this deep need for change. Over the last several years I believe I’ve begun to understand, by the grace of God, where we can begin to find happiness. True happiness. My heart longs for a deeper connection to those around me, to life. And to see joy not only in myself but to see it on the face of people I love and really anyone God brings my way. Thus, begins my journey to become a Kindler of Joy. It is a journey, a process. And I’ve created this blog as a reminder to myself daily, to open my eyes and find the beauty and joy around me. It is everywhere and it is what we all should be focusing on. Days are hard and sometimes it is downright terrible. But there is always one little thing of beauty somewhere we can try to focus on, even in the midst of chaos and hurt. Some spark to go to, to begin to warm our souls.
Welcome to my journey to become a Kindler of Joy. I hope you join me in this journey, in the process to learn to kindle joy, for “Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives.” (St. Seraphim) Who doesn’t want that?
One of my favorite parts of this website are the picture quotes that I create for my posts. After quite some time and spending more time in creation mode I decided to do more with these creations than to just post them on my blog.
Cards! That is what I thought would be so fun to create. It encompasses so much of what I aim to do. Sending cards and letters via the slow, old fashioned way of using snail mail is so much of who I am so why not take these creations and make cards!
In doing this I decided to create an Etsy shop for selling. At least for now!
Check out my creations on my new Etsy Shop: Kindler of Joy Creations.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or just to say HI! Especially if you’d love to send some snail mail…or receive it!
Kindler of Joy! 