Want to know the secret to building deep, meaningful friendships in every season of life? If you’ve been craving connection, longing for community, or wondering how to nurture the relationships you already have, this episode is for YOU.
Ever feel like you're carrying the weight of the world on your own? Maybe you’re juggling work, family, and everything else, and it feels like there’s no one who truly gets it and making friends seems like a distant memory. What if I told you the key to living a more joyful life isn’t about getting more accomplished but about doing life together? Today, we’re diving into the incredible power of friendship, community, and encouragement—and why you don’t have to do it all alone. Let me unpack how friendship doesn't have to seem so far away- no matter what season of life you find yourself in.
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Earlier this year, I confessed I was really struggling in the area of friendship. In the thick of life and in midst of motherhood life just didn't seem to have space for any extra relationships.
In 2019, also known as the year before Covid, I was constantly hosting events, markets, and gatherings on our farm- full of familiar and new faces. I enjoyed having people near and growing a village of women. I was a single mom to a teenager and life looked a lot different. However, life changed in a blink, it seems.
Shortly after we moved to the farm, I unexpectedly found wild blackberry bushes- loads of them and realized that they produced 2 crops- a double portion. I made blackberry yogurt parfaits, blackberry shortbread biscuits, and savored every last one I could. The first harvest was ready in June and the second would follow in August. However, because I was so busy tending to everyone else the third summer we were there that I missed both crops. I saw them coming in and I let the goats have the first crop. By the time I returned to the field for the second crop in August, the vines were bare.
I had less than a handful to enjoy for myself that summer. And in that moment, the Lord impressed upon my heart that I had been so focused on serving and helping others that I was neglecting my own life, my own healing- the purpose for which He had given me the farm after Joel's passing. A month later, I would sell the farm and it was bittersweet that I would never get to pick those blackberry vines again.
I shared this story with a friend of mine and just before she moved out of state, she met with me and gave me this beautiful gift she found on one of her trips. Now, every year at Christmas, as I'm placing the ornaments on the tree that glass blackberry ornament she gifted me, reminds me of honoring the season I'm in- to allow the land and that season to nourish me before I pour out to others.
Why do I tell you that story? I felt the same way about making friends in my current season. I realized that I was allowing the emotions and desires of being surrounded by a village cloud my vision. While I've wanted to get connected and find real, meaningful, long-term friendships, I've forgotten what matters most. I neglected what's been right in front of me- the community that was already surrounding me.
I've been sharing my life openly on line since 2010. I shared my story of Joel, of Freddie, and then caught everyone up to speed on my life with Adam and our children. Through so many different stories, I've brought YOU along for the journey. You've been my community. You've been my friends. And YOU have become some of my best friends that I've never met- near and far.
You've been in my messages, in my comments, and my inbox- from all over the world. God was working and I didn't even see it. There was a gift that was placed inside of me when I lost Joel- a joyful expectation, despite my world being shattered, when I had lost everything all at once. Ever since writing out the dreams in my life and sharing them with the world- a week after losing my husband and best friend, I've felt so compelled to share my process and my story with people to find joy in hard places. And I've done that online. Over the last 6 years, I've seen nearly all 10 of my really big dreams come to fruition.
I didn't realize the community I had been longing for in my heart, were the ones that were with me- all along. And chances are, if you're reading this blog or listening to this podcast, YOU are one of those people. YOU are the reason I've created this community.
Friend, I don't just want to be your facebook friend or follow you on Instagram. I don't want to simply inspire you. I want to KNOW you. I want to be your friend- no matter how near or far we are apart. I believe God connected us for a reason. I have been praying for you since January 6, 2019. I wrote in my journal of big dreams in January of 2019 that I wanted to be an exceptional friend. That vision was never painted with the idea of friends who were close by or conveniently located down the block but friends I met online. As I said, the Lord has been leaving breadcrumbs all along.
I've been working on a space for you- a community that would be uplifting, encouraging, supportive, inspiring, empowering, and of course joyful. My hope is that you will come, be part of the Joyful Life Insiders Community- and be a friend, find some amazing people to befriend that you otherwise would never have met, laugh, cry, and do life together, right where you are in life.
The Joy in Friendship
Have you ever had that one friend who just gets you? The one you can call at any hour, who makes life’s highs higher and its lows a little easier to bear?
I can tell you, the most joyful seasons of my life weren’t joyful because everything was perfect—they were joyful because of the people I shared them with.
I am so thankful that despite my closest friends being miles and states apart they are always with me. I love when my friend Ashley sends me farm memes and knows exactly how to brighten my day.
As I say in the intro to every show, I truly hope one day you laugh so hard you pee your pants! My desire is that you find that kind of friendship in our Joyful Life Community!
"Friendship isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s foundational to joy. And if you’re feeling disconnected or lonely, it’s not because you’re failing—it’s because we weren’t designed to do life alone." -Brene Brown
You Are Not Alone
The Bible says in Proverbs 27:17, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."
I love this verse because it reminds us that community isn’t just a gift—it’s something we need for ourselves to grow. When we’re surrounded by others who challenge us, encourage us, and walk with us, we become stronger and better versions of the humans we were meant to become!
But in today’s world, it’s so easy to isolate ourselves, isn’t it? Maybe you’ve been burned before, or you feel like you don’t have time for connection. I get it. I have felt that pain more times than I can count in friendship, but here’s the truth: isolation steals our joy, while community multiplies it.
I truly want you to experience friendship and community the way God intended it and there is no excuse for time, flexibility, or distance. It's truly a place where you come as you are, you stay a while, and you connect with others that value those same things.
We All Need Encouragement
Have you ever been in a moment where you were ready to give up, and someone’s simple words of encouragement gave you the strength to keep going?
Friend, we all need people who can remind us of who we are, what we’re capable of, and the promises God has for us, especially when we feel the weight and emotions of our circumstances.
I was struggling the other day and I decided to text my friend Sallie, who is like a big sister to me. She lives nearly an hour and a half away, and I haven't seen her in over a year, but to know that I could text her and tell her how I was feeling in a moment that felt like a true weight on my chest, it literally put breath in my lungs to know I wasn't alone. Without hesitation, she was sending me encouragement and strength- just as she always does!
Ironically, Sallie and I went to the same high school and we're from the same town, but we only met because of me sharing my life online. I met her for the first time when we moved from Jacksonville to the farm back home in South Carolina. She brought her family out to the farm, helped me with my garden, picked those blackberries, held baby goats, laughed and cried with me through my grief when I lost it over a generic mountain painting in the aisle of Hobby Lobby. Sallie is a "no matter the hour friend". And just the same for her, when she was unable to travel to me, I've been there for her and the battles that life has dealt her. I know we are going to fill this community with friends just like Sallie!
Just like with the story I shared with you about Lorie last week, Sallie is a real life friend who I happened to meet online. I am so grateful to have found these friends to do life with. And I don't want you to pass up the opportunity and rule yourself out- convincing yourself that you aren't meant to have friends because of your circumstances.
How?
So, how do we actually build these connections- online? It starts with taking small but intentional steps... Step into the Joyful Life Insiders Community. It’s not always comfortable to put yourself out there, but here’s the good news: you don’t have to do it perfectly. You just have to start.
Over the next 12 months, together in this community, you're going:
Replace overwhelm with a sense of peace and purpose.
Build habits that feel freeing, not forced.
Cultivate friendships that inspire and uplift you.
Feel confident in setting and achieving goals that align with your values.
Live each day with clarity, joy, and resilience.
If you’re ready to stop doing life alone and start experiencing the power of connection, growth, and joy, I want to invite you to join the Joyful Life Insiders Community. Inside, we’re building meaningful friendships, intentionally growing in what really matters, and embracing joy every day.
Be inspired, equipped, and empowered by joining a supportive community, growing yourself, creating a life you love with joy.
What?
Now, when you join the joyful life insiders, you're going to get immediate access to two of my biggest resources, plus have loads of resources to help you along in creating a life you love!
The Joyful Life Goal Planner: I created this resources just for this community. And everything we do is going be centered around this planner, and you're going to find sooooo much value in it! You're going to get access to the full Joyful Life Goal Planner, which right now is 62 pages of bliss, that is going to help you create a vision for your life, stick values to it, and then also help you with goal planning and habit setting, with goal planning and habit setting.
The Joyful Life Workshop: Where you will have access to endless replays of the workshop that goes along with the planner. I will walk you step-by-step and how to use the planner and make the most of it.
Together these powerful tools will help you set goals to create a vision and make meaningful steps and take meaningful steps towards living with intention. This is my personal step-by-step goal setting process that I follow every single year. and it includes prompts and ideas, worksheets, journal pages, the whole nine yards to help you form a vision and turn it into daily habits.
Exclusive Monthly Classes: Each month, I'm going to guide you in an exclusive Insiders podcast, only available within the community, that will help you focus on the most common challenges in our community. So you are going to have the ability to raise your hand and say, this is what I'm struggling with and...You may see me create a podcast out of it that helps dive directly into that topic and I'm stoked about it. This might include classes like decluttering your mind in your space, building the habits that stick, finding joy in everyday struggles in life. There's so many things that we could dive into.
Weekly Devotionals, Challenges and Resets: Exclusive access to devotionals and journal prompts and actionable steps to help you stay on task. Of course, gratitude pages and my starting today page that teaches you how to create priorities and make sure that you're working towards the goals that you want and have in your life.
Community Focused Chats and Cohorts: These private chats are where you can connect with other people who are in the same boat at the same time as you. So whether you're just starting out in your motherhood journey or you're a little further along and you have grandkids and you're empty nesters and you want to learn from people who are your peers, this is the perfect place for you. You can share your struggles and your challenges and have Q and A's and talk to one another and become friends. Share ideas and encourage one another.
Quarterly Refreshes: These are opportunities to reflect over the last 90 days and celebrate milestones and recalibrate towards your goals to refocus and recenter to make sure that you're actually making progress or reevaluate and say, it's time to shift and time to pivot. And you're going to know exactly how to do that when you join this group, because you're going to have all the tools and resources you need to do it.
Earn 1-on-1 Goal Coaching Sessions: Plus, I'll be giving an opportunity each quarter to earn a one-on-one coaching session inside the community as you grow with me. And I'm stoked about it because this is a practice I've been doing for six years and I am going to be able to help you specifically unpack your journey and your mindset and get out of the stuck.
Limited Time Offer
Friend, this is your moment. Don't wait for January 1st to start living with purpose. Start today.
Everything you need, I already have it waiting for you in the Joyful Life Goal Planner, the workshop, and the community-- it's all ready to go RIGHT NOW! You could start today.
For just $5 a month, you're going to gain access to all of this and more. Imagine looking back a year from now and you've seen how much you've grown and knowing that you invested in a life that you love. And I am so excited for this opportunity for you to grow with you.
And here's the best part. If you choose to jump in before January 1st, you'll lock in that $5 a month founding member price for this year. Starting January 1st, the price is going to increase to $10 a month. But by acting now, you're going to save that while going ahead and getting access to what's already there for you.
You can get started before January 1st with these tools, these resources and community support from me creating a life that you love.
So do not wait on the new year!
Start living with intention, secure your spot today, and join women who have already experienced growth and connection and joy inside the Joyful Life Insiders Community.
We are just getting started. And also, if you have had, you know, mom or grandma wondering what the world I could get you and you didn't know what to put on the list, I will also have a special link to be able to gift a membership, whether you're thinking of someone that this will be perfect for, or you want to have a friend join you. This is a special gift. Send your husband a little hint, like really would love to be a part of this community, it's going to help me reach goals for our family and grow me and make me feel connected and not so disconnected from the world because my schedule is busy, here's a link for 60 bucks for the year you're taking care of which is incredible.
As we move into this new season, this new year, I want you to know that joy is a choice, a promise that God has given us. And when we live with purpose and intention, we cultivate a life that reflects the goodness of his love. You do not have to do this alone, friend. Let's build friendships. Let's grow together and let's create lives filled with joy.
Join us today and let's make 2025 your most joyful year yet.
Ready to dig deeper, find community or just get more joyful life exclusives? Head over to the free Joyful Life Insiders Community on Patreon.
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Thanks so much for stopping by! We so enjoy sharing our life alongside you. We are so grateful to each of you reading and being a part of our life and our story! We hope to be part of yours, too! And, we'd love to connect.
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With joy,
Lauren Alonso
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