You may look at my business name and think it makes sense…of COURSE – a “ROUND” joy – the hoop is a round object that brings you joy! What you don’t see is the REST of the story…my history, my journey and truth. Let me explain how I was around joy before I was aRoundJoy…
But first, I want to clarify one thing: When I say my TRUTH, I don’t mean that what I teach about hooping isn’t true. There is absolutely no BETTER way to exercise, trim up, tone up and be super happy at the same time! The hoop brings so much joy into your life! I’m a walking testimony in that department, as are hundreds of clients I have helped over the last 10 years. I just simply mean that you’d never know the REAL backstory of the actual word “aRoundJoy” unless I break it down for you…so here goes…
Growing Up
I’m an Italian girl. I certainly was raised to love all the FUN things in life…music, dance, food, the arts, if you get what I mean. My momma & daddy raised me that way…100% Italian! They were ALL about joy! I have the personality & spirit of both my parents, that’s for sure! I was also the baby of the family and I had 2 older sisters who were about 10 years older than me. Dance lessons and baton twirling competitions took up lots of time during elementary school…and years of performing on stage in musicals made up the rest of my life up through college.
Now, if you’re starting to wonder about that 10 year spread between me & my sisters…YES, my parents WERE “older” when I was born. By the time I was in high school, they actually got mistaken for my grandparents. I was keenly aware that they were slowing down as I grew up. Unfortunately, my daddy passed away far too early, when he was just 68 and I was only 21. In fact, I was home from college that day and wasn’t even suppose to be (explained more in the video below). Then, my momma passed less than 3 years later, about 3 months before my wedding. She was just 63.
So, even though I lost both my parents before I was 25, I felt this overwhelming sense of JOY and gratitude…like a real sense of peace, like a gift had been left for me. I was married to the love of my life, a man who came into my life LITERALLY from an angel I met along my path. Rather than type it all out, these two videos explain some rich history that’s part of my journey…enjoy watching and learning more about my “why”…
Married Life, Kids and Family
SO, you can understand, can’t you? Just as God put me where I was suppose to be on the day my daddy died, he also put Susan in my life. Little did I know at the time that she’d be the connection to THE REST of my story…the one who opened the door to not only a JOB, but also to meeting the love of my life, her brother, who became my husband. THESE joys I simply call “God Winks” and I see them now SO clearly as major life-defining events.
My career in banking spanned about 12 years collectively, with a break in the middle to be a stay-at-home-mom for about 8 years. I was not a mom, not even married when I started working as a bank teller…by the time I stopped working at the bank, I was a Personal Banking Officer, a working parent raising two CHALLENGING sons. Read more HERE in my Autism archives. The last few years I worked outside the home, the joy I experienced there became “fake”…I had always loved it, had fun with customers and co-workers…but as I grew older, I was longing to spend more time with what really brought me joy and where I was NEEDED again – at my home, with my family. I still enjoyed meeting people and helping them, I really did (I love customer service!)…but the day-to-day work, what with fraud and low interest rates, became soul crushing.
About that same time, my husband was changing careers due to numerous back surgeries. He went back to college full-time, and finally got a degree; he could leave the blue-collar physical work he’d only known for almost 20 years and get a job that was far less demanding on his back. He began to make enough income so that I ultimately WAS able to stop working. My family was back at the top of my list…and I felt the joy BIG.
My mother-in-law was having health issues at the time, so I was also able to help with her care, doctor trips, errands, etc. I knew this joy was EXACTLY designed my God. Again, I knew it was his plan. We had promised Susan, remember…we WOULD care for mom. She wasn’t here to do it. I didn’t even get to do it with my own mom or dad. This was my purpose. I felt it deeply. It did bring me joy and a sense of peace about where I was in life during my 40’s…but then, I felt something else…
I began to feel as if I was losing myself. Guilt set in. I’d ignore my feelings, but it was HARD…I wasn’t completely ME anymore. I kept thinking it was pure selfishness. I tried not to let those thoughts enter my head…BUT remember, I grew up in dance, baton twirling and on stage. I loved to MOVE…but with all the stuff I was doing to take care of family, I wasn’t doing anything for MYSELF that fed my authentic side. I had a couple of opportunities to perform in musical theatre productions locally, which I did…and that fed my artistic side, BUT I wasn’t in my 20’s, after all. It was hard to keep up with that kind of schedule and energy level. I even found that as much as I loved it, and was honored to get cast in those shows, it just didn’t bring me the same joy that it once did. I missed being home while I was on stage. That made me feel so very confused. Who had I become? Where was my authentic self? WHERE was the JOY I had all those years ago?
I thought I knew what would make me happy…but it felt like I had lost touch with it for so long, that my entire “self” was just GONE. I was a caretaker now, not just a mom. I had someone else to care for other than even my own kids. Both my husband and I were caring for our kids and his mom at the same time…and I didn’t have any time, room or the right to complain. THIS was God’s place for me…NOW…for that time, in my mid-40’s. I kept telling myself this. I kept talking to God about it…and my parents…and Susan.
First Blog
As an outlet, in 2005, I started writing on a blog website when “blogging” was a NEW thing for online social networking (MySpace had barely started…certainly no Facebook or other big social media was happening yet, either) …all the kids were doing blogs and a bunch of moms were also on there, to meet other moms, but also to spy on our kids! I eventually settled on a blog name “aroundjoy” because it was my youngest son’s Senior year of high school and well…I referred to his “joy” a lot. Much of the blog focused on raising our kids, actually…you can read more about those early years HERE, but also, the video below explains the PARENTING joy that is SO very woven into every ounce of aRoundJoy…I hope you’ll listen to all of this, but the main point, for THIS blog post, is at about the 8:54 mark…
Discovering The Hoop
The fact that I stumbled upon the hoop one day while watching Good Morning America was a BIG “GodWink”…I just saw it and was drawn to it…I needed some form of movement for exercise. Stress and low activity was making it hard for me to keep the weight off. I was gaining extra pounds and when hooping dropped in my lap on TV, my interest was sparked! I’ll at least have something I can do at home to help me! What I didn’t expect, was EVERYTHING else it brought into my life.
Again, it’s been all part of His divine plan. If I had discovered the hoop when I was 20, it wouldn’t fit into my world the same way it did at the age of 47. I had to go through all the other hills and valleys on my path, to prepare me to receive ALL that the hoop has given me…working at home, in touch with my true, authentic, creative self. The joy I experience not only using, but also meeting and helping other women with this ring of plastic is a blessing that I do not take lightly.
Perhaps the most chilling and inspiring thing (and if you watched the last video above, you heard me speak about it) is that the word “aroundjoy” just FIT my business, even though it had NOTHING to do with the hoop originally…the fact that I discovered something ROUND that brought me joy, and had that WORD in my back pocket, so-to-speak, from a few years before…well, you just don’t get much more DIVINE intervention than that!
I hope now you can understand how the hoop is a reminder of ALL this for me. It’s a deep connector to my authentic “little girl” who’s still inside. It reminds me of the dance that Susan and I shared, too. I’m blessed to have discovered hooping at a time when I needed to find myself and tap into my joy again…and I know God put me on earth to pass that same blessing on to other women in mid-life who also need it. The fact that we can EXERCISE daily at home, plus REDUCE stress (AND the inches on our bodies!) while smiling at the same time?? THAT’S just icing on the cake!
Does your joy run deep like this? Do you see where it came from, how you got to be where you are? Are you still searching? I’d love to hear your take on this.
My joy is around me each and every day. It has been for years. I will be forever…aRoundJoy.
We respect your email privacy
