Dani Wenger

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. I can't believe it - this newsletter turned 3 years old on March 31st!! 🎉 It could walk, talk, and express its personality if it was a human child. In a way, that's exactly what this newsletter feels like - a living, creative entity that I'm so stinking proud of. Thank you for being a part of this growing community and continuing to believe in joy and empathy in a world where it can feel complicated or uncool to be joyful. (If you're...

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. My sister has this line that I've loved for a while, and now seems like a good time to discuss it. For context, she's a kickass, guns-a-blazing kind of lady with a lot going on. She has a more dedicated workout routine than I do and a cozy home with her husband and two adorable doggos. Her line? Protect your peace. It's more than just a line - it's a declaration of the boundaries she keeps for herself to continue giving to others. It's so...

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. "It's crazy... what free will can do." I said this in a random Instagram story last week, and so many people liked it that I turned it into a Reel. It's my second most-viewed Instagram Reel of 2025, and I think I know why. In the video (which I've linked as the Video of the Week below), I'm enjoying a single serving of vanilla instant pudding and telling the camera my realization that you can make this for yourself. Of course, the video...

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. March brings up weird feelings for me, and I wonder if it does the same for you. For me, March feels like bumping into an old friend I haven't talked to in years. As we catch up, I feel awkward because I'm so far removed from the person I was when I first met them that I don't know what version they expect to see. March reminds me of the COVID shutdowns, which occurred only five years ago. It's a month when I've always experienced...

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. Me and movies go together like macaroni and cheese - I adore them. I have a lengthy list of movies I want to watch (currently 72), and they range widely in genre, decade, and so much more. One that's been around for a while and that I finally watched this weekend is the 1994 classic The Shawshank Redemption. But Dani, why do you want to talk about a prison movie made 31 years ago? Because, my friend, one of its themes is about hope, and we...

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. Want more joy in your life? Ask for it. I've been able to do some really cool things lately that have made me happy, to the degree that people have asked me how I've gotten these opportunities. It feels silly to tell them, "I just asked x person if I could," but it was true. We often overcomplicate things (myself included) to the point that we don't believe we deserve specific opportunities because they haven't magically fallen into our...

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. Let things be easy. Let things be fun. It's a reminder worth repeating because, as Oscar Wilde is credited with saying, "Life is too short to be taken seriously." For me, I've been guilty of taking parts of my life so seriously that I've sucked the fun out of them. As a result, I feel metaphorically and physically frozen, like when Stu and Drew Lou Who come back to Whoville after seeing the Grinch (with no help from this wild cold snap...

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. Friends, I made a little dream come to reality on Monday, and it was so cool. It all started last summer when my friend took me to a yoga class on a buddy pass. I was reminded how much I enjoyed teaching, even though I stopped liking it after two years of teaching at a big box gym. It was a full circle moment when that friend came to my first class on Monday. My friends, dreams can feel fickle and challenging when convincing others to...

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. My grandfather turned 101 this past Sunday, and I only want more time with him. I appreciate the privilege of that sentence—we should be so lucky to be that old! You've had him around your entire life; you should be grateful for the time you've already had. I am grateful for my time, but in all honesty, I didn't really know him until he was 90. He was a grandfather of a few English words as he preferred to speak in a language I didn't...

Hey, joyful humans! Thank you so much for being here. If "no" is a complete sentence, "because it makes me happy" should be too. Consider this for a second: how often have you been excited about something that makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone, and some hostile person says, "Why do you even like that thing? It's so (fill in the blank of something negative here.)" Then, you have to bring them around to why that thing makes you happy even though the way they approached the question...