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About Carolyn A. Dragon
Chief Enjoyment Officer | Poet/Author | Community Builder
Yes, I am A. Dragon.
Carolyn Marie Therese Gauer Brownell Beeley A. Dragon.
Although, in my travels, it's been misspelled, "Dargon" and I was told I must have dropped the "e" from "Dragone"
After years of corporate work, I founded and ran TENWOMENSTRONG, a women’s personal and professional leadership development business built with the tagline: Lead Life on Purpose. I guided circles of dynamic and inspiring women through a three-part process: Start Authentically, Explore Creatively, and Live Expressively.
For the past three years, I have continued to write (poetry and memoir), co-share my home with the “little family," and travel with the joy sign—accumulating over 1,200 photos, visiting more countries, and encountering more divine serendipity.
The Story of JoyAndHope.World
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When COVID disrupted in-person programs, and my contracted retreat space closed, I would not move this work to Zoom. It had actually started there years prior, but by 2021, every woman was overwhelmed with work and personal demands on Zoom.
Instead, I chose to close that chapter. In 2022, my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter took over our shared home on Oldham Pond. At 64 years old, I picked up the joy sign and set out to travel the world to find and share joy.
After traveling through 20 countries and over 100,000 miles—experiencing many, many moments of serendipity—I was returning to the US by ship in 2023. On one of the last days on board, I was circling the deck, randomly listening to a podcast with Rainn Wilson discussing his book, Soul Boom: Why the World Needs a Spiritual Evolution. He stated emphatically:
“We need to foster joy and hope in everything we do. Because if we let the dark side, the cynical side, take precedence, we lose and they win. Don’t let cynicism and pessimism lead your life. Find practices and ways to build on joy and hope.”
Then, the podcast host asked him, "Have you read Jane Goodall’s book?”
It stopped me in my tracks—in addition to completely validating my "joy” work (and that it needs to continue), The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall (bought months prior in Malaysia and still unread) was the only physical book I had with me in my limited travel belongings.
Taking this as an(other) undeniable sign, I immediately went into entrepreneurial mode and secured the domain: www.JoyAndHope.World.
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JOY
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HOPE
COMMUNITY
Barbie-Que to Barbie Café
by Carolyn A. Dragon - published in Half and One
Flashback: Jan ‘96, my first day at Hasbro Toys.
Mattel, our nemesis, launches a hostile takeover.
The cafeteria buzzes with chaos—
a larger-than-life Mr. Potato Head
careens down the aisle, bits flying, shouting
NO, NO! WE WON’T GO!
Naked Barbie dolls lined up on a cold grill—
a scrawled sign reads: Barbie-Que
Fast-forward: 60 days past Medicare age,
a silver-haired boomer adrift among twenty-somethings.
Sipping tea,15,000 km from home,
at the Barbie Café, in Kuala Lumpur.
Hailey, 28, from Louisville—blonde, pretty in pink—
wearing an ensemble curated from Cape Town and Hanoi.
Six months before “Barbie” premieres,
ahead of the curve, we are jetsetters chasing fun,
posing in oversized doll boxes,
selecting pastel treats from tiered trays,
sipping frothy fuchsia drinks through swirled straws—
Reminiscing: You can be anything. YES, YOU, ICON!
My tea mate, bound for Montenegro
a souvenir Mermaid Barbie to go.
I sashay away—an old doll reborn—
joy tucked into my carry-on.
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