Morning Cuppa Joy
Morning Cuppa Joy is a weekly reflection on being human — love, loss, curiosity, and everyday moments of grace. Written and read by Robyn DeLong, each episode invites listeners to focus on the beauty and love that surround us, and to notice the joy that bubbles up even in the midst of chaos. Each Cuppa is a gentle reminder to be grateful for the precious moments we’re given and the people we get to share them with.
Episodes
30 episodes
Before and After
None of us gets through life without a few before-and-after moments. We all have them—those defining moments that divide our lives into before and after. Some arrive with celebration. Others come with a phone call we never wanted to receive. Th...
Our Little Corner
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” Audrey HepburnA barren corner at a familiar Sacramento intersection stirred a memory from forty years ago about a remarkable woman known as the Flower Lady. Fran Yermol’s decades of voluntee...
Make Room for Play
How do you define play? Does it require a court, a fairway, or a field to count? What if your playground is your kitchen...your sewing room...or your garage workshop?A morning spent making pepper jelly with friends reminded me how import...
Our Enduring Promise
What do a 250-year-old nation, a worn Thanksgiving tablecloth, and a neighborhood Fourth of July celebration have in common? More than I realized. Sometimes the most ordinary things remind us of the promises we inherit—and the ones we choose to...
More Than Just Memories
What stories do you hope your children or grandchildren will remember long after you're gone? A reunion with old friends, a conversation with my son, and memories of my mother and grandparents reminded me that stories are more than memor...
No Instruction Model
What if someone had shown your sixteen-year-old self a photograph from your future and everything in it seemed impossible?Father's Day can stir up a wide range of emotions. In this week's Cuppa Joy, I reflect on how babies arrive with no...
Lessons in Kindness
Why do stories of kindness touch us so deeply? And what happens when children are invited to put those lessons into action? This week I'm sharing the story behind Steve Hartman's Kindness 101 project and the unexpected ripple effect it has crea...
The Gift of Belonging
What helps a child survive life's hardest seasons?A story about orphan trains led me down an unexpected path—through the childhood experiences of my grandparents, the beloved pages of Anne of Green Gables, and memories of my own...
The Human Side of Artificial Intelligence
As artificial intelligence grows smarter, what will help us remain deeply human? Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days—sparking excitement in some people and fear in others. In this week’s Cuppa Joy, I reflect on my own surprising jo...
Our Freedom to Choose
Even when life upends everything we’ve planned and hoped for, one freedom still remains—the freedom to choose our response.This week’s Cuppa Joy explores the layered concept of choice—not simple choices like chocolate or vanilla, but the...
The Heart of Teaching
What if one of the greatest gifts a teacher gives isn’t knowledge, but words that shape a child’s heart for a lifetime? This week, I’ve been thinking about teachers—not just what they teach, but what they leave behind. A kind word. A moment of ...
Not Just Wine Improves with Age
There’s a subtle message most of us have absorbed about aging—that after a certain point (no one can say exactly when) it’s all a downhill slide. But what if that’s not the whole story? Maybe it’s not just wine that gets better with age....
Beyond Museums
We often think of art as something we visit—paintings on walls, music in concert halls. But what if art is something we live… something that helps us heal? In this episode, I explore the healing power of art—far beyond museums and gallerie...
Noticing the Beauty
I first visited Alaska just days after the sudden loss of my son, Michael. In the midst of grief, I experienced a moment that has stayed with me ever since—a reminder to pay attention to the beauty all around us, even when life feels overwhelmi...
Grandmas on the Move
We never know what invitations and challenges life will bring us or how they might change us. In this episode, I share the story of Grandma Gatewood, who walked the Appalachian Trail alone at 67, and a journey of my own that began with a simple...
Keep On Smiling
What if something as simple as a smile could change someone’s day—or even their life?In this episode of Morning Cuppa Joy, I explore the power of small acts of kindness through the story of a young boy who set out to make people...
Batter Up, Bunnies, and Spring
Spring has a way of arriving with a little bit of everything—Easter, Passover, Spring Break, and the return of baseball season. In this episode of Cuppa Joy, I reflect on shifting holidays, Little League days, and hot bleachers, and ho...
Planting Seeds of Hope
In a world that often feels heavy with what is being torn apart, today’s Cuppa Joy reflects on the importance of noticing what is still being tended, nurtured, and brought back to life. From a rewilded estate in England to community gardens rig...
Thin Places in the Veil
Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Today’s reflection explores Ireland’s deep respect for what Celtic tradition calls “thin places”—where the unseen line between the ordinary and the sacred grows thin. From ancient beehive huts built by early monks to a ...
Loving With Open Hands
There is a time for rocking babies to sleep and filling the kitchen table with crafts and science experiments. And then, quietly, our place in the circle begins to shift. In this episode, I reflect on how the ache we feel isn’t from love fading...
The Power of Partnership
There was a time when “You’re not the boss of me!” was the loudest voice in my kitchen. In this episode, I reflect on what that determined three-year-old taught me about power, partnership, and shared dignity. Honoring Women’s History Month, I ...
Stitching a Country Together
In this week’s Cuppa Joy, I reflect on the legacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson at the close of Black History Month. Not through campaigns or controversy, but through a story he often told about his grandmother—a woman who couldn’t afford a blanket and...
Taking the Helm
In honor of Presidents Day, I found myself looking beyond the holiday to something deeper — how leadership is formed long before titles or power. From the childhood hardships of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt to Viktor Frankl’s r...
