Author: Joey Jones

Happily owned and trained by the rescue dog I adore. Enjoying and grateful for a peaceful life at long last. In England. She/her.

Ah, ok

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What is the last thing you learned?

At the moment, I’m living rural side, so cross paths with a gamekeeper from time to time. I don’t like anything he stands for, so try and keep time around him as brief as.

However, it’s quite handy for intel, sometimes.

The other morning after a short walk with  Himself, I was driving us right into sticksville.

On the way, I thought I saw what were very young pheasant haring across a vast open field. I was puzzled, to say the least. It is totally the wrong time of the year for the little ones to be about.

This is where said gamekeeper comes into play. I asked him about the birds. He puffs himself up, knowing all, looks at this know nothing-from-the-city and informs me they are not young pheasant but quails..So, there we have it.

Young Pheasant

Quail

You fall down, you get up

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How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it”

Maya Angelou ( 1928~2014)

Words from William Wordsworth

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What are three objects you couldn’t live without?- I’m hijacking today’s DP space

Hawthorne

Lines Written in Early Spring

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

William Wordsworth ( 1770~1850)

Where the Light Finds Us

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What experiences in life helped you grow the most?

“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in” Leonard Cohen ( 1934~2016)

Some questions make it sound as though growth comes from a few big, defining moments. As if we’re meant to point to the dramatic scenes and say, there… that’s where I changed. But most of the time, we’re growing in quieter ways.

There are the cracks life gives us without warning. Loss, change, surprise. They open something in us, and the light finds its way through before we’ve even had time to steady ourselves.

There are the tiny cracks, too, the ones we barely notice at the time. A kindness that shifts your mood. A disappointment that slows your pace. Small openings that don’t feel like lessons, yet they soften us all the same.

And there are the cracks we choose. The boundary we finally hold. The truth we stop swallowing. The moment we walk away from something that no longer fits. These openings carry their own quiet courage, and the light that enters through them feels earned.

Together, they shape us. Not in neat chapters, not in grand arcs, but in a steady, ongoing way. Big moments open us. Small moments shape us. All of them let the light in.

And maybe that’s enough to notice for now — the way the light finds us, softly, through whatever openings we have.

Written in the Stars?

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Do you believe in fate/destiny?

Different cultures use a different language to explain why a life unfolds in a particular way, but the underlying ideas are surprisingly consistent. Fate refers to the conditions we do not choose: the circumstances of birth, the limits, and advantages that shape our starting point. Destiny refers to what develops through our decisions, values, and actions, the direction we grow into as we become ourselves.

Between these two sit the unpredictable element: the chance events, timing, and small choices that can alter the course of a life. Modern science calls this chaos, though older traditions recognise the same principle without naming it.

Despite their differences, most belief systems agree on one thing. Life is influenced by forces outside our control and by the choices we make, and the meaning of a life emerges in the interaction between the two.We are never entirely determined and never entirely free. We live in the space between what we inherit and what we create.

Once upon a time

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Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.

Caitlin Moran is an English author, writer, and broadcaster.

It was a long time ago now, but she wrote something in one of her weekly columns, which resonated and has stayed with me.

‘shutting the door behind me and heading into the night’

I, too, was that young woman leaving the family home early evening to catch a bus into Birmingham (UK) with no idea how the night would unfold. The city night scene was busy in those days, lots going on. Vibrant, welcoming, exciting.

In hindsight, a kind of magical time.

Becoming who I always was

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Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.

My biggest DIY project has never involved a hammer, a paintbrush, or a YouTube tutorial. 
It has been me, growing up without guidance, without a blueprint, without the scaffolding of family or social support. I built myself from whatever scraps of stability I could find. I learned by doing, by failing, by getting back up, and by trusting that forward was the only direction available.

For years, I didn’t see it as a project at all. It was just survival. But now, in later life, I can finally step back far enough to see the whole picture: the joins, the seams, the improvisations, the quiet triumphs. As Soren Kierkegaard wrote, “Life is understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” Only now do I understand the truth of that.

David Bowie said the best part of getting older is that you become who you always were. 
He was right. I didn’t arrive here by accident. I carved my way here. And now, with the noise behind me, I can finally see the shape of the woman I’ve been building in the dark for decades: steady, unborrowed, unmistakably myself. Not new. Just finally visible.

This DIY project is ongoing. There are still loose ends and unfinished corners, and there always will be. But the structure holds. I hold. And what stands today is a life built from resilience, instinct, and a kind of courage I had to teach myself one day at a time. 
It turns out the bravest thing I ever built was myself.

Author’s Note 
Written in recognition of the woman I became, and the long road it took to meet her.