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The Contrasts Are Important

Resilience lives in the rhythm of seasons - queer lives are often shaped by winters of silence, struggle, or survival. Those winters make our springs matter. They sharpen our sense of joy, deepen our appreciation for every bloom, every moment of safety, every burst of laughter. We don’t romanticize

Joy - It's Right There

Joy doesn’t always arrive with fireworks - sometimes it’s a bird on the fire escape, the quiet rhythm of making coffee, the gentle presence that walks beside us without needing to announce itself. In queer life, joy often lives in these tender, ordinary moments, made extraordinary by how

It's All Attached

Connection is at the core of Queer Joy - this deep, often quiet truth that none of us exists in isolation. When we show up as our full selves, when we love out loud or support someone else’s becoming, we're tugging on a thread that ripples outward.

Flip The Script

Creativity lives in the taking apart - in the bold, curious act of unbuilding what was handed to us so we can make something that’s actually ours. For queer folks, this is the heart of our joy: not just telling our stories, but disassembling the versions that never fit

Don't Give Away Your Power

Queer Joy is an act of reclaiming power - not just from systems that try to suppress us, but from the bitterness that can take root when we’ve been hurt. Choosing joy doesn’t mean forgetting the harm or excusing it - it means refusing to let it live

Wag Your Tail!

There’s something beautifully honest in the idea of wanting a tail to wag - pure, uninhibited expression of joy. Queer Joy taps into that same place: the desire to be so free, so unburdened, that our happiness becomes physically undeniable. So much of queer life is spent learning to

The Candle & The Mirror

Queer Joy spreads like light - sometimes bold and blazing, sometimes soft and reflective, but always powerful. In our community, we are often both the candle and the mirror: the ones who dare to shine and the ones who lovingly reflect that light back to others who are still finding

You Can Shape It!

A big part of queer experience is the refusal to accept the world as fixed, rigid, or immovable. Queer Joy is an act of radical optimism: the belief that identity, love, community, and even the future itself can be shaped, molded, and transformed. Where others see limitation, we see potential.

It's About You

This quote pulses with the quiet power of resilience. It reminds us that true change begins in the fierce, unshakeable belief that we are worthy - of love, of joy, of space to exist as we are. Queer Joy isn’t passive; it’s something we choose, cultivate, and demand

Enjoy Both Sides

Queer people know what it means to weather storms: the messy, painful, sometimes isolating process of becoming and being seen. But joy doesn’t just come after the rain - it’s braided into the struggle, into the dance in the downpour, the choosing of love and self even when

Heart Over Head

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.”

We Invent

"It is just as likely that as I invent what I want to say, you will invent what you want to hear."

Retro-Futurist Artist Laurie Simmons: Still Waiting, Still Playing, and More Spectacular Than Ever!

Retro-Futurist Artist Laurie Simmons: Still Waiting, Still Playing, and More Spectacular Than Ever!

The Gem

“The gem cannot be polished without friction nor man without trials.”

A Force Of Nature

"This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature…”

Everything Connects

“Eventually everything connects – people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.”

Unseen to Unstoppable

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."

Bold and Open

"For art and joy go together, with bold openness, and high head, and ready hand - fearing naught and dreading no exposure."

The Seed & The (Easter) Egg

"Community is a place where the connections felt in our hearts make themselves known in the bonds between people, and where the tuggings and pullings of those bonds keep opening our hearts."

The Most Important Thing

"There's nothing you can do that's more important than being fulfilled… in this way, you will find, live, and become a realization of your own personal myth."

Out of Hell!

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”

Quiet Joy

“There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.”

Do You See It Too?

"Creative expression is not just a means of getting attention, although some have approached art that way. Think of art as a way of connecting, of sharing your insights with others."

A Chance

"Take a chance and you may lose. Take not a chance and you have lost already."

It's In Your Hands

“I don't know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is in your hands. It is in your hands.”

Facelift!

"Joy is the best makeup."

The Purpose & The Result

"Deep human connection is ... the purpose and the result of a meaningful life - and it will inspire the most amazing acts of love, generosity, and humanity."

Reality?

"At this point, realism is perhaps the least adequate means of understanding or portraying the incredible realities of our existence."

Compensation

“If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.”

The Fire

“Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.”

Satisfaction

"I said there are at least two kinds of satisfaction, however, and the other has nothing to do with skill. It comes from human connection. It comes from making others happy, understanding them, loving them."

The Way

"As you start to walk on the way, the way appears."

Champions

“Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision.”

Not Always

"Grief can take care if itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with."

Infinite Connections

“In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.”

Raw and Real

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got."

Defeat & Glory

“Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.”

Inseparable

“Joy and sorrow are inseparable. . . together they come and when one sits alone with you . . remember that the other is asleep upon your bed."

Chosen and Connected

"Connecting expands possibilities - in work and in life - for ourselves as well as for others."

What Failure Can’t Handle

“Failure cannot cope with persistence."

The Next Thing

"When you look fear in the face, you are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'"

Joy-Powered

"Joy is my energy and energy is my powerhouse."

A Good Friend

"A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world."

Pure Adventure

"Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art."

Go Around

"If you can't go straight ahead, you go around the corner."

The Finish Line

"In choosing joy, the finish line dissolves into a different matter altogether."

Less Anonymous

"I nod to a passing stranger, and the stranger nods back, and two human beings go off, feeling a little less anonymous."

Heightened Consciousness

"By whatever name one calls it, genuine creativity is characterized by an intensity of awareness, a heightened consciousness."

Ride It!

“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.”

The Same Coin

"He who has not looked on Sorrow will never see Joy."

Each Other

"For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people's love and concern for each other."

Passion For The Possible

"Hope is passion for what is possible."

Keeping Sane

"What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did."

The Secret

"Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity."

Just Listen

"The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen."

Inspiration & Perspiration

"Once the inspiration comes, that directs where the perspiration goes."

Use Adversity For The Win!

“Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.”

More Than All The Triumphs

"The reflections on a day well spent furnish us with joys more pleasing than ten thousand triumphs."

Connecting To Action

"Occasionally ask, "What is the connection between what I want most in life and anything I plan to do today?"

A Masterpiece

“Art is science made clear.”

What Hard Times Reveal

“In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.”

Plunging In

"Oh the wild joys of living! The leaping from rock to rock ... the cool silver shock of the plunge in a pool's living waters."

The Fabric

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men."

Don't Listen

"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor."

Why?

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

Wanting What You Get

“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”

Hearts Ablaze

"The heart is an organ of fire and you can't stop it from feeling or connecting."

Finding and Losing Ourselves

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."

Joy Builds Resilience

"Joy, collected over time, fuels resilience - ensuring we'll have reservoirs of emotional strength when hard things do happen."

Recognizing the Moment

"Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy."

The Language Of Friendship

"The language of friendship is not words but meanings."

Close To Heaven

Sherri Franklin started rescuing senior dogs in her own home many years ago. Today, Muttville isn’t merely spacious, spotless, and joyful; its new home was imagined by superstar designer Ken Fulk and it's closing in on its 13,000th adoption! Sherri is a true hero.

You've Only Got One

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Dreams Conquer

“I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams.”

Where Joy Comes From

“Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men but from doing something worthwhile.”

All You Need

“Never underestimate the empowering effect of human connection. All you need is that one person, who understands you completely, believes in you and makes you feel loved for what you are, to enable you – to unfold the miraculous YOU.”

Inspiration & Perspiration

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."

Strength in Survival

“Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.”

Illuminating the Path

"E.L. Doctorow said once said that 'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' … This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard."

The Only Way

"Say what you want about aging, it's still the only way to have old friends."

Very Personal Post

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

Turning Challenges Into Joy

"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity."

The Power Of Focus

"Your joy, your happiness, your satisfaction and your ability to dance with life, depends solely on what you pay attention to."

Nature's Bond

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

Create To Grow

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it."

Turning Rocks Into Joy

"There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them."

Here and Now

"Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy."

Nothing Is More Valuable

"There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend."

The Power of One More Try

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

Speaking Through Creation

"In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent"

It's What You Want

"Joy is not the result of getting what you want; it is the way to get what you want. In the deepest sense, joy is what you want."

Connect With The Force Inside

"It's important to know what you're going to spend your life on, and the only way you're going to find that is by connecting with the force inside yourself."

Mild Ecstasy

"There is a curiously sharp sense of joy - or perhaps better expressed, a sense of mild ecstasy - that comes when you find the particular form required by your creation."

Can You?

“I love those who can smile in trouble.”

You Both Win!

"Help someone in distress and you lighten your own burden; the very joy of alleviating the sorrow of another is the lessening of one's own."

Expand Connection

"Connecting to another is one of the most important things in the world and you can keep expanding that connection - one person, a family, a community, a country, a society, a culture."

You Will Never Know

"Whatever is powerful to you can be translated into something which will matter to somebody that you will never know."

A New Path

"If you are going down a road and don't like what's in front of you, and look behind you and don't like what you see, get off the road. Create a new path!"

Space To Enter

"Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter."

What It Is To Be Human

"We need to remind ourselves of the beauty of human connection and of nature and pull ourselves out of devices for a moment and appreciate what it is just to be human beings."

No Rules

"There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds."

The Tide Will Turn

“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

Ingredients of a Joyful Life

"I believe a joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude and inspiration"

Connecting Joy

"Release the joy that is inside of another, and you release the joy that is inside of you."

Our Dreams

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

Move The Small Stones

"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."

Look In The Right Places

"It is looking for the joys that come in small, precious packages and making the most of them, knowing that big packages of joy are few and far between."

What! You Too?

"Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .""

Great People Make You Feel This

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

How Civilizations Heal

“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

A Good Grasp On Life

"A sense of humor... is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life."

People Never Forget This

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Floating Bi-OH!

There are more openly bi people in 2025 than there were openly LGBT people in 2017!

It's Not Impossible

"All things that are truly great are at first thought impossible.”

Take Charge

“Take charge of your attitude. Don't let someone else choose it for you.”

Where The Joy Is

"Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself"

Invest In These

“When you understand that being connected to others is one of life’s greatest joys, you realize that life’s best comes when you initiate and invest in solid relationships.”

The Incalculable Wealth

"Creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty."

You Keep Going

"Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going."

You Can't Copy It

"A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe."

Depth of Friendship

"Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance."

Einstein Approves!

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."

Did You Unplug?

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."

Resolve

“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.”

You, But Better!

"Connecting to your passion is being you, but better."

Words Can Be Limiting

"You can only express in words what words are capable of expressing-- what language can communicate. Painting has nothing to do with that."

The Next One Is Easier

"Life is getting through the moment…Get through the first trouble, you'll probably make it through the next one."

Nature's Most Beautiful Gift

"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift."

Defining Connection

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

Pure Joy

"Creativity takes courage, but it also returns the reward of pure joy."

Face It!

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Give It Away To Keep It

“Joy increases as you give it, and diminishes as you try to keep it yourself. In giving it, you will accumulate a deposit of joy greater than you ever believed possible.”

Directly & Indirectly

"Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."

Challenge Your Assumptions

"Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in."

Strong Lives

"Strong lives are those that are marked by a sense of purpose, connectedness, resilience, and fulfillment."

Invent Imaginary Letters

"Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way."

A Human Being Must Learn This

“A human being must learn at a very young age how to connect to other human beings.”

You Can't Use It Up!

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

Anger

“Anger ... it's a paralyzing emotion ... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that —

We Defy The Storm

"It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it."

The Awareness That Brings Joy

"True joy results when we become aware of our connectedness to everything."

Take a Shower - Have an Idea!

"Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference."

Underlying Advantages

"Resilience is a precious skill. People who have it tend to also have three underlying advantages: a believe that they can influence life events; a tendency to find meaningful purpose in life’s turmoil; and a conviction that they can learn from both positive and negative experiences."

Everything Comes Out of Nothingness

"Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life."

The Essence of Happiness

"Connecting with the people who are meant to be part of your own North Star is much more important than any aspect of business. It's the essence of happiness, the full realization of your potential for joy."

Every Civilization Begins With Art

“There is no civilization that did not begin with art, Whether it was drawing a line in the sand, painting a cave or dancing.”

Strength

“Out of resistance comes strength.”

3 Steps to Paradise

"I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second, a good word; and the third, a good deed."

Collecting, Connecting, & Sharing

"Collecting the dots. Then connecting them. And then sharing the connections with those around you. This is how a creative human works. Collecting, connecting, sharing."

Art

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

Enough

"Effort + the courage to show up = enough."

Do Lots of THAT!

"Figure out what fuels your joy, then do lots of that!”

Connecting the Dots

"Quotes are like prompts. A way of searching, connecting the dots."

A New Way of Looking at Things

“One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.”

It's The Grain of Sand

“It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out; it's the grain of sand in your shoe."

Queer Joy is the Goal!

"Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one's identity as a being of worth and dignity."

Welcome to Joyful Queer

For those of us who know adversity so well it feels like an old roommate, joy isn’t just an act of resistance - it’s an act of survival. It’s the thing you grab when the floor falls out beneath you. Sometimes, it’s the only thing.

Transcending Differences

“The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.”

The True Kingdom

“Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.”

Intuition Will Tell You

“Your intuition will tell you where you need to go; it will connect you with people you should meet; it will guide you toward work that is meaningful for you – work that brings you joy, work that feels right for you.”

Might As Well Dance

“You look ridiculous if you dance. You look ridiculous if you don’t dance. So you might as well dance.”

Your Strongest Ally

“There will always be enemies. Time to stop being your own.”

Bringing The Universe To Order

“Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.”

Keep Calm & Include

"We should indeed keep calm in the face of difference, and live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity."

Resilience Through Identity

“Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”

Letting Joy Find Us

“Joy bursts in our lives when we go about doing the good at hand and not trying to manipulate things and times to achieve joy.”

Wear Your Cape!

“I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different, those are our superpowers — every day when you walk out the door and put on your imaginary cape and go out there and conquer the world because the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren’t in it.”

How To Judge Me

“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”