“Don’t look down. Look around.”
That was Judy Williamson’s advice in her speech at the 2026 Louisiana Book Festival.
The dust jacket on her book says it all.
Wherever you live, whatever your age, seize the day.
Don’t look down. Look around.
Why? Because greatness surrounds you.
Such greatness reminds us there is design in this magnificent world.
Where there is design, there is a Designer.
Don’t Look Down. Look Around. A Simple Formula for Joy
The relentless flood of social media drains optimism.
The onslaught of daily feeds in our phones don’t help our optimism.
Reminds me of the pess-optimist who said, “I believe everything will turn out all right. But it’ll be too late to do anybody any good.”
COVID contributed heavily to this attitude, especially in younger generations.
Everyone was isolated and looking down into computer screens.
That’s when Judy rediscovered thousands of Kodachrome slides and hundreds of stories from her years as chief travel writer for The Dallas Morning News and travel editor of the Houston Chronicle.
Over five years, Judy assembled her best photos and selected and updated the stories that now compose Paper Girl’s World.
In a WFAA interview last year, the TV host asked Judy, “What would your older self advise your younger self?”
Pausing for a second, Judy smiled and said, “Don’t look down. Look around.”
Those five words are a simple formula for good mental health.
Follow that perspective every day and find yourself walking a rising path of joy and happiness.
How attention narrows and darkens
Smartphones can become objects of obsession.
Phones were once simply tools for communication, until they were made out of glass.
The large glass faces became something to look at, even covet.
But too much scrolling leads to…
- discontent
- distraction
- dislocation
Andrew Sullivan captures this despair in an essay.
“Over time in this pervasive virtual world, the online clamor grew louder and louder. Although I spent hours each day, alone and silent, attached to a laptop, it felt as if I were in a constant cacophonous crowd of words and images, sounds and ideas, emotions and tirades——a wind tunnel of deafening, deadening noise. So much of it was irresistible , as I fully understood. So much of the technology was irreversible, as also I knew. But I’d begun to fear that this new way of living was actually becoming a way of not living.”
— Andrew Sullivan, “I Used to Be a Human Being,” 2016 essay
Trade minutiae for wonder
Whatever happens in your technology every day, don’t look down.
Look around.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Ther voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
— Ps 19:1-3
We tell the 1st through 4th graders at the Wednesday night Elementary program at Highland Park Presbyterian Church to look at the sky every morning on their way to school.
God is talking. He’s talking through his works.
- Sun
- Rain
- Wind
- Stars
- Clouds
- Planets
Who’s he talking to? Everyone.
“In the heavens, he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.”
— Ps 19:4-6
God is saying, “I made all this. My creation declares my glory day and night.”
What matters is that you and I were designed with joy.
We are made in God’s image and this world is a gift to see and behold.
Look around. We are not accidents. We are created in God’s image.
Perhaps the simplest way to rediscover joy is to follow Judy’s five words.
“Don’t look down. Look around.”
Stories like this are part of the reflections I write about life, resilience, and purpose explored on my About Stephen Blaising page.