Johanna Ginstmark

Endings and new beginnings

It was New Years Eve. I was standing on a rooftop in West Hollywood as fireworks were lighting up the California sky. As December came to an end and January began I was cheering in 2014 with friends. We had nothing but big hopes and dreams. On January 1 2014 I took on a new […]

The spirit of Christmas

So it was the week of Christmas, and I had packed 9 beads in a tiny marmalade glass jar and a suitcase full of Christmas gifts and clothes. I took the train down south ready to spend the holiday with family. It was supposed to be two days of writing, then 7 days of time […]

Letting go

This week I was feeling a bit adrift and not very grounded. For some time, as you may know, I have been busy trying to take leaps of faith and trusting the process and what not, and here I was now with a deep sense that I needed to let go of things in order to […]

Trust the Process

I have just started to work on a project that pushes me way out of my comfort zone. It pulls the fear of failure to the surface, at times it makes me doubt my talent and leaves me with sweaty hands and a trembling heart. I have more than once got a slight anxiety attack […]

Johanna’s Week 15

Health scare part 3 (Got the results – 100% healthy) And so I waited, uneasy and nervous, for the results of last week’s biopsy. The question of being sick or not was on repeat in my head. When I finally got the results that I didn’t have cancer a chock wave of relief went through […]

Johanna’s Week 14

Week 14 – Health scare part 2 (I got the results, 100% healthy) It was an early Monday morning when I went to the Oncology Department at the hospital for a biopsy. Having friends who suffer and recover from cancer have made this brutal illness present in my life, but as with everything else – […]

Johanna’s Week 13

Strong – Health Scare Part 1 (I got the results, 100% healthy) The word ‘Strong’ came up with one of the beads Tuesday morning, and it couldn’t have been more appropriate. I don’t know when, but at least a few months ago, I discovered a lump in my throat. It’s not visible, but obvious when […]

Johanna’s Week 12

Home Every time I go home to my mother’s place in the South, something within me calms down. It’s in the heart of my soul. It’s something in the earth, the wind, and the water. It makes me go quiet, it stops me. It puts me on mute, and it makes me listen to that […]

Johanna’s Week 11

FAITH For the past five or so years, since I started to make a living as a writer, I have lived a life as if I was blindfolded; not knowing at all what the future has in store for me. As a writer I put words together in sentences, creating stories from a blank sheet […]

Johanna’s Week Ten

Interdependence Somehow, somewhere along the industrialization of our world we took on a rather self-absorbed and entitled behavior. We tend to live our lives contained in this way of believing that we have a right to whatever could, would, might or definitely should come to us. We victimize ourselves and blame others, our situation, our […]