Let it go · I’ve got to let it go. It really, really bothers me. Annoys the heck out of me. But I’ve got to let it go. There’s nothing wrong with it. I do think it is sad — but gotta release it because it isn’t mine to carry.

Late night · Family walk. Late at night. All of us together! Delight.

The slingshot · Sometimes you get pulled back or held back. I get pulled back. Feels like I’m going in reverse, going backwards, not moving forward.

But really you’re being prepared, regathering, realigning and posturing for great acceleration.

Often the stone in the slingshot can’t see that it is about to fly forward. It only knows that it’s going backwards. But then suddenly: wow!

Delays with benefits · The meeting start time was running late, I had about ten extra minutes that I wasn’t expecting. So instead of filling it with noise, I paused, thought with my whole self, and jotted down some ideas and questions.

Those questions turned out to be the best part of the meeting—they got us to the heart of the matter and maybe shone a light on the future.

Pause. Notice. Dwell.

Instinct · From Garmin. My favorite watch of all time…that I’ve ever owned.

Powerful, tough, gray.

Opportunity · That thing is getting stale, I apparently said. Okay, fine, sure: it’s getting stale.

So is that a death sentence or a declaration toward dissolution? No. It’s an opportunity—to imagine, to be curious, to grow as it grows.

Opportunity everywhere! Unless you are blind.

Balance. Priorities. · I’d like to do some speck plucking when it comes to other people: their priorities out of whack, doing the wrong thing first and therefore never ever getting to the right thing.

But I am the chief of sinners here.

Being able to discern priorities and make hard, brutal decisions is a necessary skill for living a successful life. As someone who is unendingly open to possibility, this is a great source of tension for me.

Popularity · Someone noticed that I had more than 1,000 followers on Substack. They complimented me for it. “You’re a stud,” this person said.

First – those aren’t honest followers. They are imported email subscribers to a different list. Somehow they got linked to me. Whatever.

But the compliment made me a bit sick to my stomach. Having a big platform (not that 1k is a big platform) is a dangerous, deceiving thing. Pursuit of platform and valuing people based on platform is the opposite of how I want to live or see.

Community · Community is hard. People mixing together is hard.

Even living with demographically-alike family members is hard! And the folks that attend Speak Up writing groups are a wildly diverse mix—age, gender, race, politics, faith, physicality, financial status. But that non-homogenous dynamism only works if there are clear points of alignment, focus, and safety.

12 minutes · Right now I’m sitting in a quiet room. I have 12 minutes before I need to move on to the next thing. Breathe. Breathe! Breathe…

Pause · Sometimes it is hard to pause. It is hard to notice. It is hard to think. I’m thankful for those spaces and times to pause and think and notice.

AI · Noticing when people use AI to write and create. The AI-generated blog post graphics, the AI text in the social post. It’s gross. No offense, it’s gross.