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Joy Walker

About Joy Walker

https://joymwalker.com

Posts by Joy Walker:

Thankful

Thankful

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This Thanksgiving was a memorable one, but not in the way we had planned. Though thankful for the bonding time, I’d rather not make it our new family tradition.  

My sister, Sandi, called me Wednesday night from the emergency room and said they were going to admit her. On Thanksgiving morning, the best surgeon in the country removed four gallstones that were blocking her bile duct. Immediate relief! We were so grateful.  

However, when she woke her surgeon hit her with something she didn’t see coming. She would need to stay the night so he could remove her gallbladder on Friday. The speech therapist, for the first time in her life, was speechless. She asked if he was kidding. He wasn’t. We honestly didn’t know that once a gallbladder started producing stones, it would continue to do so.  

Sandi received better care than she might have at a five-star hotel. The nurses and assistants treated Sandi like she was their only patient. They were kind and informative. You never would have known that they were forgoing time with their families to spend Thanksgiving with us. 

On Friday, her surgeon and his robot friend removed her gallbladder. (Laparoscopy is incredible.) When I thanked him for taking care of my sister, he acted like it was no big deal. It was a big deal to us, though. We were relieved, grateful.  

On Saturday, her surgeon said she could go home. Yay! We thanked him and everyone who took care of her for their expertise and their kindness. What a great team!   

Now as we reflect on Thanksgiving and look forward to Christmas, may we remember to be thankful even if our holidays don’t go as we planned. 

*Photo by Deborah Hudson, Pixabay

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

alarm clock

Can one little shift change your world?

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In my head, retirement meant no alarms. After decades of waking to an alarm, I believed I had earned the right to never set one again. Even when I started my second career as a writer, I resisted. It’s not like I am getting paid to write. I should be able to write whenever I want, right?

But looking back, that mindset kept me from one little shift that could change my world.

I’ve always called myself a night owl. My best writing comes after midnight, I insisted. Yet every book I read about writing delivers the same message. Write in the morning. I fought it. I even wrote a blog declaring, “I can’t.” Recently, everything I have read or heard about waking early ganged up on me.

Still, I told myself that setting an alarm meant waking up before I’d gotten enough sleep, and I can’t write when I am tired. Then I checked the weekly sleep totals on my Garmin. Except for the week I came home from Alaska sick, I slept 7 to 7.5 hours a night, without an alarm. Now after three weeks of setting one? I averaged 7 to 7.5. It turns out my “sleep until I wake up” philosophy never gave me more rest. It just gave me more angst.

In sixty-one years, I have never had a bedtime. For three weeks now, I’ve set an alarm and focused on getting to bed earlier. For twelve days, I have written in the morning. Yesterday I woke before my alarm. Epiphany! All this struggle is not about an alarm? It’s about a bedtime? Is it really that simple? One little shift has changed my world.

How about you? Can one little shift change your world? Send me your thoughts.

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

Cat on path

On Breaking a Streak

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Last Monday, my watch told me something shocking.  

It said, “One-day streak.”  

For 1,156 consecutive days (that’s over three years), I had met my steps goal. (See Lower the Bar) Even on sick days, riding days, and driving days, I had fit in a walk. So of course, I assumed my Garmin had messed up. Surely, it wasn’t me. But when I looked at Saturday’s stats, my circle was a U-shape. 

It took me a few hours to piece together what had happened. On Saturday afternoon, I gave blood. Before I left, my phlebotomist, Kim, told me not to exercise for 24 hours. 

Since I was hungry and tired from too little sleep the night before, it was easy to take her advice. I went home, ate, took a nap, and woke still feeling a little off. I worked on Finding Joy in the East before heading out to see comedian Jeff Allen with my friend Becky. 

Jeff kept us laughing for nearly two hours straight. Still buzzing from the show, I ordered his book, Are We There Yet? on Audible. Having met him in the lobby, I couldn’t wait to hear him read his own story. I listened for a while, wrote for a couple of hours, and drifted off to sleep listening to Jeff.  

It never even occurred to me to check my watch. 

After church, I finished listening to Jeff’s book as I walked my neighborhood, unaware that Saturday had slipped through the cracks. On Monday, the notification that my 1,156-day streak was gone jolted me out of bed. I would have to call Garmin and have them fix the problem, only to realize it was my problem, not theirs. 

How devastating. In over three years, I hadn’t missed a single day. How could I have forgotten?  

But I did. 

I broke my streak.  

So, what does that mean? 

It means I start again—just like I encourage you to do when you feel you’ve failed, let yourself or a loved one down, or broken a streak of your own. Just start again. 

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

Bug Woman

What I Learned From My Bug Woman

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Technically, my bug man is Justin Silver. He owns the business that has been getting rid of my ants, spiders, and bugs for twenty years. It’s my newest tech, Michaela, though that spurred me to write what I learned from my bug woman.

Michaela has been treating my lawn and home for a year. This time she arrived because the boxelder bugs are overtaking my bedroom, as they do every fall. After she put on shoe covers to protect my carpet from her wet shoes, we walked upstairs.

“My house is a mess. I just posted a blog about camping with my niece. (See A Week of Firsts) I haven’t had time to put everything away. We just got home last night.”

“Oh, you’re okay.”

“I hate I didn’t get to clean up before you got here. It matters to me what you think because my home reflects who I am. I like to keep my house clean.”

Around my bedroom window, she sprayed something new, something “sticky” she said. Next, she did the same to all the downstairs windows. We kept talking.

“Actually, I don’t think most people care about what we think. We just spray. We aren’t inspecting.”

At her truck, Michaela put on a backpack sprayer. She continued listening and spraying as we walked to the backyard.

“I was gone all summer, and I’m still catching up on the yard. It was a successful summer, though. I finished my first book, Finding Joy in the West, did a book tour, and rode in three more states.”

“You’re out there traveling though. You are living your best life. All I do is spray bugs. I like it though. I’m not a people person. It’s hard for me to talk with people.”

Thank you, Michaela, for listening. You are doing way more than spraying bugs. You are a people person. Maybe being a people person isn’t about talking. Maybe it’s more about listening. So, what did I learn from my bug woman? I learned the importance of listening—even if you think you are just spraying bugs.

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

Friends at Fort Mountain State Park

A Week of Firsts

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My five-year-old great-niece and I went camping in my tiny house this week. We picked Fort Mountain State Park because we had been there twice before. (See No More Pretending) Since I booked a site only days ahead, we didn’t get our favorite site 68. This would be our first time at site 13. It turned out to be a week of firsts.

Since I forgot to pack our brushes, it would also be our first time to comb her hair. She wasn’t happy with me, but we combed through it. After an hour of tag and climbing at the playground, we played seventeen holes of miniature golf. Hole eighteen doesn’t return the ball. She scored a two, three times—pretty good for a first-timer.

Another reason we chose Fort Mountain was because the lake is within walking distance of the campground, and she is not ready to say goodbye to summer. The overcast skies made 70 degrees feel like 55, yet the child played in the water. After stepping in the icy water, I agreed to help make sandcastles with my sweatshirt on. We had the beach to ourselves—another first.

After a warm shower (her idea) and a cup of hot chocolate, we returned to the playground hoping to meet new friends. Two couples I knew from teaching their children at Adairsville Elementary were there with four of their grandchildren. What are the odds? My niece and the grandchildren were instant friends. The adults caught up as we watched the children play drop tag—another first.

Later that night at our friend’s sites 68 and 67, my niece played a game she had never played, ate her first s’more, and painted her first rock. The next day, she hid hers at our campsite. While playing with two of the grandchildren, she witnessed two other children finding the painted rocks and rehiding them for others to discover.

As we climbed to the top of Fort Mountain to see the fire tower and an overlook, she saw an entire city from a whole new perspective. My little niece wanted to climb over the railing and “go there.” Seeing farmland, ponds, roads, cars, buildings, houses, and hawks in flight may have been the most mind-blowing experience of her young life, but her new friends? That’s all she has talked about since we left. What a joy to experience so many firsts through the eyes of a child. It was truly a week of firsts.

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

100

Let’s Make the Last 100 Days Count!

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Did you know we have 100 days left in 2025? That number might feel discouraging because some goals from January are still hanging over our heads. But I think it’s exciting because 100 days is still plenty of time to make meaningful progress. Either way, let’s make the last 100 days count!

When I think about 100 days, I see opportunity. It’s like being given a fresh, three-month window to focus on my goals. I’m looking ahead with purpose. That means focusing on my big rocks: writing Finding Joy in the East, a few important relationships, and riding my bike. (You can read my blog about focusing on the big rocks here.)

So, what are your big rocks? What are you focusing on this year? A year is not defined by the dreams we envision in January, but by the accomplishments checked off at year’s end. First, as Jon Acuff suggests, let’s list what we have already accomplished this year. Celebrate. And then look forward.

Let’s look at our calendars, or a grid of one hundred boxes if you prefer. What can we do today to get us closer to our goal? Can we write one page? Declutter one drawer? Eat one healthy meal? Devote one hour to a relationship? Where will we land if we do that every day for seven days? Thirty days? One hundred?

Whether you have stayed on track since January or need to begin today, focus on your why. Track your progress. These 100 days are not just the end of this year. They are a springboard into the next. Picture yourself at a New Year’s Eve party. How will it feel to not just celebrate the dawn of a new year, but 100 small victories because today you chose to finish strong?

We have one hundred days. Are you with me? Let’s go! We’ve got this! Let’s make the last 100 days count!

*Photo by Pixabay

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

Portland Bridge Square

Just as Planned

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Big goals feel overwhelming—until I break them down into say, “50 small steps.” This goal of riding my bike in all 50 states seemed almost unreachable. Yet I knew that if I focused on one step, one ride at a time, I would eventually reach that goal. That said, riding in Washington and Oregon went just as planned. Our nephew Zach met my sister Sandi and me in Seattle at the end of our cruise where my rides in Alaska also went just as planned. We ate lunch at an outside diner, walked along Puget Sound, and savored Indian food for dinner.

The next day Sandi hopped a shuttle to the airport and Zach drove me to Everybody’s Bike Rentals, in Portland. The owner Ryan set me up on a hybrid. After signing my life away and authorizing him to charge my card for the full amount of the bike if I didn’t return it, the bike was mine for 48 hours.

Zach and I rode a greenway in Vancouver . . . Washington not British Columbia. The paved trail meandered along a creek, wooded areas, and open meadows. Had I been alone, I may have gotten lost on the 16-mile out and back. Fortunately, Zach inherited his sense of direction from his dad, not his Aunt Joy. I followed his lead.

The next day we rode from Zach’s house in Portland. I had never ridden in a city where bike commuters and joggers have as much right of way as motorists. Riding along the Willamette River through town with hundreds of cyclists, runners, and “Walkers” made me feel I belonged.

When I returned the bike to Ryan, I realized my trip went just as planned. I have officially found joy in 48 states. Utah and Hawaii will need to wait.

For now, I’m home, shifting gears from riding to writing as I focus on book two: Finding Joy in the East.

Reaching a big goal doesn’t just happen without planning and perseverance. But if I stay focused, I might find that I reached my dream just as planned.

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

Joy with bike in Alaska

One Step at a Time

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When a goal or dream feels daunting, people say “one step at a time.” As a cyclist, I say, “one pedal revolution at a time.”

My dream first sparked at age nine. At fifteen my brother Tom rode his bike across the country. The next year my sister Sandi, at eighteen, did the same. Their grit planted a seed in me.

After our mother died, the seed sprouted. In 2009, I pedaled across lower Michigan with Mom’s seventy-eight-year-old brother, Wil. The next year I trained and finally rode coast to coast–not at fifteen, or eighteen, or even twenty-five, but at age forty-six—thirty-five years after the dream began.

Toward the end of that 2010 ride, a new dream formed. As my feet and knees (and backside) screamed in pain, I realized I didn’t need to ride across the states again, but in all 50 states. The plan was to ride in the lower 48 states first. But Tuesday I rode in Ketchikan, yesterday in Juneau, and today, Skagway, making Alaska state forty-six.

The irony is not lost on me. I’m here in Alaska with my sister Sandi. When Princess Discovery docks in Seattle, my brother’s son will ride with me in Washington. From there, he’ll escort me to his home in Portland so I can check off Oregon, the place where his dad and Aunt Sandi first began their trek. By this time next week I will have ridden in 48 states, leaving Utah and Hawaii for the finale.

This dream has been unfolding for fifty years. Barring injury or death, I will reach my goal by age sixty-five. So, if you have a dream, or know a young person who does, please listen. Stay the course. If you get sidetracked, get back on the road. Don’t give up. Take it one step at a time. Or if you are a cyclist, take it one pedal revolution at a time. If I can do it, you can too.

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

Speaking to students

A Dream Come True

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If you could have seen their faces . . . or mine, you would understand why I say a visit to my alma mater Washington Center Elementary School was a dream come true. In front of me sat 272 smiling children the same age as me when I said, “I want to be: 1) a teacher and 2) an author.”

For fifty years my second goal eluded me. When that dream came true, Finding Joy in the West: A Quest to Ride My Bike in All Fifty States was published in April, I had to go back to my roots. The desire to return to the school where I grew up, the school that molded me into the person I am today grew as each day passed. I needed to tell those children to follow their dreams, never give up, not listen to naysayers, and to find their joy.

Through many phone calls, emails, and a visit with principal Keith Goldfuss, we scheduled a talk that will forever be emblazoned in my heart. Tuesday afternoon, he introduced me to the largest, most respectful group of wide-eyed listeners I have ever stood before. I set my note cards on a table (never to be looked at again) and began with a thank you to their principal, teachers, and them for their undivided attention. After thirty minutes of telling them how remarkable they are, how dreams can come true, and that the world needs their unique contributions, 200 hands shot up.

Their short questions led me to long answers, yet they stayed focused despite me losing mine. We could have engaged for another hour, but busses and cars were lining up to take them home—home where I hoped they would share with their parents that they had witnessed an author hold back tears because she had just realized a dream come true. And they too had dreams they knew would one day come true.

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

me at Whippi-Dip with chairs

An Unexpected Gift

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Nostalgia brought me to the Whippi-Dip in Norton Shores, Michigan. Being a family of eight who often brought friends on our vacations, we may have only stopped once or twice for ice cream, but the Whippi-Dip remains a landmark for my family. We often stayed at PJ Hoffmaster State Park and Maranatha Bible Conference nearby and had to pass the iconic shop to get there.

So, on my trip north, I camped at the state park and rode my road bike for a picture. From the parking lot, I sent a group text so my siblings could join me on my trip down memory lane. Then I noticed a tiny shop to the side with beach towels, sunglasses, floatation devices, lawn chairs and more. As I walked through the open doors, Mark greeted me with a smile and his story.

He has been the owner of the ice cream shop for 29 years. Ten years ago he turned the storage shed into an opportunity for additional income. Mark said he is priming his son to take over the business so he can travel more to Central and South America to fish, dive, and relax.

I asked if he had any beach chairs. He had sold out. Just the day before I had wished I had one to make reading on the beach easier and had looked at two stores to no avail.

He paused. “Oh wait. I have a couple over here that got left outside. Can’t sell them because they are rusting. You can have them if you want them,” he said, picking up a chair outside his shop.

“Are you sure?”

Within the hour I was back with my hybrid bike with a rack on the back. Strapping them on my bike didn’t work so he made a strap out of my bungie cords, helped me swing it over my shoulder and I was off with a gift from a man I will always remember for his generosity—for an unexpected gift.

Have you ever received an unexpected gift? Please share your story.

Joy M. Walker
Joy M Walker

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’d love your support in growing this community! Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who might find it interesting. Your shares help me reach more people to help them find their joy.

Joy M. Walker

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