Mojo and the Mess

Happy New Year — and welcome to Mojo and the Mess.

If you’re new here, I’m really glad you found your way in. And if you’ve been here for a while — thank you for carrying this space with me into another year. However you arrived, this place exists because real life does.

Mojo and the Mess is for people who don’t start the year with a clean slate. It’s for those of us walking into January with stories already in progress, bodies that need care, hearts that have been through things, and hope that looks a little quieter than it used to.

This isn’t a space about fixing yourself.

It’s about staying.

A Little About Me

My name is Izzy. I’m living with metastatic cancer, and I write my way through it. I write on good days, hard days, treatment days, and days where the goal is simply to make it to bedtime with a little grace left.

Here you’ll find stories about treatment, fear, marriage, grief, anger, humor, and the small, unexpectedly good moments that still find their way in. Some posts are heavy. Some are soft. Some are written with a smile that only exists because I know how hard things can get.

All of it is real.

All of it belongs here.

And Then There’s Mojo

Mojo is my grey French bulldog and the quiet heartbeat of this space.

He doesn’t know what a new year means. He doesn’t care about plans or timelines. He just knows when to sit closer, when to climb into my lap, and when it’s time for a walk or a nap.

Mojo has taught me that joy doesn’t always look like celebration. Sometimes it looks like routine. Sometimes it looks like staying. Sometimes it looks like choosing to be present even when you’re tired.

You’ll see him pop up throughout the site — sometimes in the writing, sometimes at the end of a post — reminding us that life keeps happening in small, meaningful ways.

What Mojo and the Mess Is

This site is for anyone living in the middle of something — illness, grief, fear, change — and still trying to build a life alongside it.

It’s honest without being hopeless. Gentle without denying reality. A place where you don’t have to explain yourself or perform strength to be welcome.

As we step into this new year, Mojo and the Mess is growing. Not louder, not flashier — but wider. With more intention, more care, and more commitment to reaching the people who need this kind of space and haven’t found it yet.

Finding Your Way Around

If you’re new, here’s how to explore:

The Blog — personal essays, journal-style posts, letters, and reflections Resources — things that have helped along the way Support / Keep Mojo and the Mess Going — for those who ask how to help Subscribe — the easiest way to stay connected

There’s no right order. Start where you need to. Come back when you want.

To the Subscribers Who Walked With Us Through 2025

Thank you for being here last year — for reading, sharing, commenting, subscribing, and holding this space with care.

2025 was built on honesty, late nights, hard truths, quiet joy, and a lot of trust. Every time you opened a post, sent a message, or stayed subscribed, you helped turn this into more than a blog. You helped turn it into a community.

I don’t take that lightly — and I’m carrying it with me into this year.

A Note From Mojo 🐾

Hi.

If you’re reading this, you’re already doing okay.

You can sit with us.

I’ll keep watch.

One More Thing Before You Go

If you’re reading this at the beginning of a new year, I hope you know you don’t have to arrive here with answers. You don’t have to feel optimistic or “ready.” You don’t even have to know why you clicked. Sometimes finding your way somewhere safe is enough.

This space exists for the in-between — for the moments where you’re holding gratitude and grief at the same time, hope and fear in the same breath, exhaustion alongside the quiet decision to keep going anyway. That tension is welcome here. It always has been.

To everyone who walked with Mojo and the Mess through 2025 — thank you. Your presence turned this from something I was writing into something we were building together. You gave this space its steadiness, its safety, and its heart.

And to anyone who’s new: you don’t have to catch up. You don’t need the backstory. You can start right where you are. Read what speaks to you. Skip what doesn’t. Come back when you need to. This isn’t a place that asks anything of you except honesty with yourself.

As we move into this new year, I’m showing up with more intention, more care, and more commitment than ever before — not because everything is easy, but because this matters. Because there are people who still haven’t found the words for what they’re living, and I want this space to reach them. Because Mojo and the Mess has become proof that even in the middle of uncertainty, connection is possible.

However this year unfolds for you — gently or chaotically, loudly or quietly — I hope you find moments that feel like relief. Moments that feel like being understood. Moments that remind you that you’re allowed to take up space exactly as you are.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for being part of this.

We’re really glad you found us —

and even more grateful that you stayed.

Happy New Year. 💗