Welcome to Joy Scout Project
Joy Scout is a place to explore joy in the space between who you were and who you're becoming.
Maybe you lost someone. Maybe your life changed in a way you didn't choose. Maybe nothing dramatic happened at all, and you just realized you've been getting through your days instead of living them. You're in the right place.
Where this started
Ten years ago this October, my husband Brad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died 101 days later.
In those first impossible months, we made each other a promise: to go looking for joy on purpose, even when neither of us could see much light. Sometimes it came naturally. A lot of the time, we had to force it. That promise became Forced Joy Project.
After Brad died, I kept it going because I didn't know what else to do with what I was carrying. I wasn't building a brand. I was building a raft. And then people started climbing on.
For almost a decade, Forced Joy Project was a home for grief. I'm proud of what we built there. But grief was the door we walked through. It was never supposed to be the whole house.
My life has gotten bigger. Grief is still here. Brad is still here. But so are a thousand other things now: travel and friendship and love and creativity and curiosity and rest and adventure. I don't want to spend the next decade proving that joy can exist after loss. I want to live it.
So this next chapter has a new name.
Why "scout?"
“To scout” literally means to explore in order to obtain information.
It means to stay curious and pay attention. To wander toward the people and places and experiences that make life feel bigger. To notice the tiny evidence that we're still here.
You don't have to be done grieving to scout for joy. You don't have to be healed, or sure of what's next. You just have to be willing to look.
What you'll find here
Field Notes is where I write about joy, grief, change, and what it looks like to live the life that's still here. Some posts are essays. Some are small practices you can try this week.
When you want to go further, there are three ways to join the club:
The Next 100 Days. A 100-day practice built on a rule Brad made for himself after his diagnosis. The first round begins October 13.
Scouting Joy. A year-round practice of noticing what makes you feel alive, with a community doing it alongside you.
Field Guide to Becoming. For when you're ready to build what comes next.
Still going
If you've been around a while, you might know my other work. Both are still going strong:
Book of Stories captures the stories of the people we love in a custom keepsake book, before we start to forget.
Widows in the Wild gets widows on planes and into adventures together again — built for the ones who are ready to say yes to something new.
Ten years ago, Brad and I were trying to find little pieces of joy inside a life that had become very small and very scary. Now I want a life big enough to hold all of it. The grief, the joy, and everything in between.
Welcome. I'm glad you're here.
The Next 100 Days kicks off October 13th, ten years to the day after Brad's diagnosis.