Joey O'Connor's Blog, page 2

Thankful People Are Beautiful People

Why wouldn't you want to be grateful?

If you ask me the single greatest practice to cultivating a more beautiful life–the one thing that can and will make a tremendous difference in your life–my answer is simple. No spiritual rocket science here. It’s thanksgiving.

Giving thanks, practicing gratefulness, saying “Thank You” and living a life of appreciation radically changes your outlook on life. Even in tough times, thankful people are resilient people. I know it’s hard to be thankful when y...

Exceeding My Expectations

Going Above and Beyond to Create Beauty for Others

Ugh! Company was coming and the patio at The Grove still wasn’t finished. I still had a ton of dirt to move, but no one to help. Krista and I always say that ‘company is a good motivator’ for cleaning our home moments before guestsarrive. I fondly call my wife the “relocation specialist.” She has the innate ability to hide unsightly stacks of papers, clothes dumped by teenage boys, and other sundry items into closets, drawers and nearby park...

What is Your Beautiful Moment?

You can create moments of beauty today.

Yesterday, I had the privilege to bewith friends at a beautiful cliff home in Laguna Beach overlooking the Pacific ocean. Over the course of a couple hours, we had many beautiful moments. It was a gorgeous day. We sat in comfortable chairs on my friend’s patio. We laughed, prayed and told stories. We talked about our dreams and vision for a film project we’re working on. Below us, waves crashed and we could see seals basking in the sun on a large rock...

The Beautiful Country

Kindness has an undeniable and solid architecture.

My daughter Ellie is studying architecture in Copenhagen this year. Though we miss her smile and easy-going personality, she’s having the time of her life traveling Europe, taking in all of its architectural wonders and sending us photos of her watercolor paintings of Copenhagen. Architecture major. Art Minor.

Yesterday, my wife and I skyped with Ellie. She led us through a photographic journeyof her recent trip to the World Expo in Milan, I...

I Love Little Kittens & I Hate Poison Oak

Beauty needs no reward.

I love little kittens and I hate poison oak. Turns out, I ended up with more than cat scratches last weekend. Aidan—my son—and David, a friend, and I had just finished a long day working at our 12 acre organic lemon and avocado grove.

Shoveling tons of dirt into the back of my truck, chain-sawing railroad ties, and stacking retaining wall bricks, we were building an entertainment patio space for our grove artist getaways. What could have been a long hot day had been m...

Beauty for Ashes

You Have Something to Offer this World

For years, my older sister Rosemary had talked about wanting to write a book. It was a familiarsounding dream. A beautiful desire. I’ve heard it from many well-meaning people. I recently read that 80% of people who wish to write a book; only 1% will actually do so. If you want to write a book, you need a strong and compelling reason. And if you really want to be a writer, you might as well take up less risky endeavors like base-jumping, Everest expediti...

You Make the World More Beautiful

The World Needs Your Beauty Today

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The Eastern Congo is a place of jaw-droppingbeauty and unspeakable horror. Grab a map and you’ll see the Congo smack dab in the heart of Africa. It’s the second largest country in Africa; bigger than the whole of Western Europe. A massive land filled with vast jungles, crocodile-infested rivers and savannah as far as the eye can see, Joseph Conrad chronicled his real life adventures about it in his bestselling novel Heart of Darkness.

The truth of the Congo,...

How Triathlons Teach You 7 Important Life Lessons

You can go much farther than you think you can.

Never say never.

I was one of those guys who said I’d never do a triathlon. I grew up in the eighties when triathlon was just getting popular. I loved athletics and played Division I volleyball in college, but when NBC sports televised the annual Kona Ironman race, I told myself, “Amazing. Inspiring. Good for them.”

Watching the surging maelstrom of a couple thousand swimmers clobber each other like salmon fighting upstream was not my idea how...

Tell Me Your Story

Your Story Adds Beauty to the World

Tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine. This past summer, I went to the Eastern Congo to discover and film stories of beauty and hope coming out of a desperate and war-torn land. There’s a whole lot of pain and brokenness in the Eastern Congo, a place the United Nations has called, “the rape capital of the world.”

In my travels, I heard gut-wrenching stories and met the victims of atrocities so horrific that I won’t repeat them to certain family and fri...

Bestselling Generosity

Generosity always bears new fruit...

Last week, I was the grateful recipient of a bestselling author’s lavish generosity. A bit of back story is in order: My screenwriting co-author and I have been working on a project for several years now. As part of our research, we contacted a top expert on the life of one of our key characters. “Expert” is an understatement.

He is the leading authority on the subject matter who wrote an international bestseller. His research was meticulous. His travel e...