Representing Jaystone Press, Joan Huguenard offers lively, engaging talks as she travels from city to city. Below are just a few of the Speech Titles in Joan's repertoire:
Let's Make the Clutterfly!
This talk is geared to the specific audience in attendance.
Watch the Clutter Fly
Joan presents a fast-paced program beginning with a brief overview of why we find ourselves overwhelmed by so much "stuff" and a peek at subtle psychological barriers to the elimination of clutter in our lives. When Joan launches into practical, let’s-get-started-today suggestions for change, pencils fly as audience members encapsulate the wisdom in order to take it home and put it into action. Topics covered are influenced by audience reactions and may include papers (how do I keep from drowning in them?) clothing and closets, simplifying life, and others. We learn that specific areas of the home can be made to function in response to specific needs, and we discuss the design of low-cost, specialized tools to enhance that efficiency. An exciting surprise feature is the discovery of space in our own environment that we never knew was there for the taking!Most important of all is the recognition that partnership can sprinkle all our efforts with glorious success:
- We can find a "Partner in Grime" to work at our side,
- We can, if we choose, partner with our loving Creator, Master of all Organization.
Your Dream Closet
How to fill it with only things you love to wear!
Most of us are willing to admit our closets are far from anybody’s dream. Yet we struggle to make changes. Joan contends our methods of making such change have been mostly negative (I hate cleaning my closet, I have to get rid of things; I don’t want to face it, etc. etc.) Anything clouded with such negative emotion is almost doomed to failure from the start. Joan teaches a positive approach that works. Hear her presentation and follow her guidelines and you will soon have a closet containing clothes you love to choose from each time you dress.
In addition, you will learn a simple method for maintaining what you have gained, so you’ll never have to clean out your closet again! Wow!
I Ended Up in China Because I Had a Garage Sale
Come learn how Joan’s decision to have a garage sale in 1985 led eventually to an invitation to teach in China. Discover how she quickly completed the sale of her house and many other possessions before boarding a plane for the other side of the world. Without any experience or training, she went to teach English to Chinese graduate students and adults in a land where she knew not one single person and only one word of the language. She had learned to say ni hou, which means hello.
Enjoy her tales of nearly three years of a life filled with exotic surprises, enticing challenges, and riotous misunderstandings. For example, picture yourself at a large gathering, trying to stay awake through a long speech (in Chinese, of course) until someone unexpectedly says, "Great news, Joan. When this talk is finished, you’ll be the next speaker!"
Modern Israel - My Perspectives
Many people dream of visiting the Holy Lands, but few take the opportunity to reside there for an extended period. Joan tells of her first visit to Israel in 1995 and how that led to her spending an entire year there as a volunteer and student of Biblical archaeology.
Come along on the adventure as we take up residence first in the Galilee among Palestinian Christians and Muslims, and then in Jerusalem among the Orthodox, Reformed, and non-religious Jews. Gain insights into the current unrest through the eyes of one who is not an expert, but who can relate what she saw and heard and felt during her special time in this intriguing land.
Life in Biblical Times
The writers of Scripture did not include background details because the customs and cultural requirements of the time were well known to all their intended readers.
Throughout subsequent centuries such knowledge dissipated until many nuances and implications inherent to the passages have slipped beyond the grasp of most twentieth century observers.
Discoveries of the past fifty years have shed new light on first century life in Palestine. Joan’s presentation Life in Biblical Times offers intriguing glimpses into that culture.
Informative details, gleaned or substantiated by recent archaeological study, are presented in readily understandable twenty-first century terms. Fresh insights bring depth and clarity to Scripture verses and sometimes even prompt further study among audience members.
The material Joan presents, historical rather than doctrinal, has interest for persons of all faith traditions or none at all. Folks involved in Bible study will find their studies greatly enhanced, while those with no Scriptural experience are delightfully edified by the fascinating details described.
A Picture is Worth…
To see the images described makes this talk indescribably more vivid and memorable. For a small additional fee, Joan supports the talk with slides of authentically constructed full scale replicas of objects common to daily life in Biblical Times.You’ll better understand the farmer’s life when you view his threshing floor; the grape grower’s life when you take in his watchtower and the stomping vats at the wine press; the builder’s challenge as he visits the stone quarry.
This enhancement gives the audience a sense of presence in the first century that will linger long after the projector and speaker have left the premises.
Embracing the Yes! - How I Learned to Recognize God's Nudges and Invitations
This presentation is about learning to recognize God’s nudges and invitations and shares some of the inimitable adventure that has followed this learning for the speaker, Joan Huguenard.
Joan will reveal a number of times in her own experience when the nudges surprised, challenged, confounded or delighted her as she learned to recognize the inexhaustible movements of the Spirit.
The audience will be encouraged to remember nudges and invitations in their own vast store of experiences. They’ll be invited -- only if they wish -- to share some of these memories with all of us.
Often we go through our days feeling lonely or inept, and confident that God is nowhere around. At least it seems God is absent and doesn’t care about the difficulties we face. And yet our minister or rabbi may be saying, "God knows. And cares very much about your life."
Is it possible that we are not recognizing the movement of God which may be much more like a whisper than a shout; like a tiny breeze rather than a hurricane.
Joan can also make available copies - personally autographed, of course - of her new book: Embracing the Yes! A Life Recycled. Autobiographical, covering the 1970's and early 1980's, this inspirational personal odyssey provides bittersweet nostalgia for other seniors as it recalls societal norms of the time. Readers say "once you've started, it's hard to put this book down; engaging; exciting; challenging; fun; like reading a good mystery."
Paper Management in Your Home
The amount of paper that enters your life in one month is more than the average person of 50 years ago handled in a lifetime!
How can you deal with all that paper, have access to what you need when you need it, never forget to pay a bill, remember all those upccoming events, and have the right stuff at your fingertips when tax time rolls around?
Joan teaches concrete steps to follow, whether you are already well organized or whether you are buried in piles of paper throughout your entire premises! She will help you evaluate your space, your habits, and your dreams of good paper management so that you have guidelines for achieving the success you desire.
Joan will also explain and offer for sale her own Clutterfly Paper Manager, a complete easy-to-use desktop system that gives you newfound peace as you will have the proverbial "place for everything" and take delight in putting each keepable piece of paper exactly where you will be able to find it when you need it next.
Special Offer - As a long time member of the National Association of Professional Organizers, Joan specializes in individual consultations for home or office.
Whenever on your premises to present a program, Joan offers 20% off her usual fee for same-day consultations. This valuable offer is available for any resident or staff member of your retirement community and can usually be scheduled either before or after the presentation.