THIS WEEK IN FOUND: A four-minute conversation with my new neighbor, and what it taught me about why we're all so tired of performing. Plus your weekly reflection question and one step worth taking before Sunday ends. I met one of my neighbors this week. Army vet, Vietnam. I'm Navy. We were standing around the way you do when someone new lands on the street, and somewhere in the first ten minutes he told me he used to drink and had to stop. I didn't reach for anything. I just said I used to...
19 days ago • 2 min read
THIS WEEK IN FOUND: What a missed week taught me about the balance I keep writing about. Plus your weekly reflection question and one step worth taking before Sunday ends. The box cutter was somewhere under three layers of packing tape and a duffle bag I hadn't touched in two days. My back hurt. And somewhere between hauling furniture and making sure all the utilities were on, I realized I'd missed last Sunday's send. Me and my son were doing all the heavy lifting. Things everywhere, nothing...
26 days ago • 2 min read
Initial Finds Some holidays you observe. Memorial Day you feel. ↓ Today I'm thinking about service. Not in an abstract way. The way you think about it when you actually wore the uniform. When you knew people who gave everything and didn't come home. Memorial Day has always landed differently for me because of that. It's not a long weekend. It's a reckoning. My birthday is May 31st. Six days from now I turn 50. And because my birthday falls close enough to Memorial Day that the two have...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
THIS WEEK IN FOUND: What turning 50 actually looks like when you trace the arc back honestly, and what it means to realize you had more control than you ever thought. Plus your weekly reflection question and one step worth taking before Sunday ends. Somewhere around 2018 something started to shift. I can't point to a single moment. It was more like a slow recognition. The kind that builds quietly until one day you can't un-see it. I'd spent years doing what made sense. Work hard. Get...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
THIS WEEK IN FOUND: The quiet moment that finally told the truth. Plus your weekly reflection question and one step worth taking before Sunday ends. Most mornings I'd wake up, make coffee, and sit down like everything was fine. Laptop open, calendar full, the routine going exactly as planned. On paper, nothing was wrong. But there was this low-level hum underneath all of it. Not stress, exactly. More like... distance. Like I was watching my own life from a few feet away. That hum doesn't...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
THIS WEEK IN FOUND: What the feeling of leaving a familiar place can teach you about the life you've actually been living. Plus your weekly reflection question and one step worth taking before Sunday ends. You walk through a space you've known for years and something shifts. Not the space. The space is exactly the same. But you know it's ending, and now every ordinary corner of it looks different. The light in the hallway. The way sound moves in the kitchen. Things you stopped noticing a long...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
THIS WEEK IN FOUND: Nobody around you would know anything was wrong. The calendar is full. The work is getting done. You show up, you deliver, you're good at what you do. From the outside, everything looks like it's working. And honestly, a lot of it is. That's what makes this particular feeling so hard to name. It's not failure. It's not even unhappiness, exactly. It's more like wearing a coat that fits but isn't yours. Functional. Just not quite right. I know that feeling from the inside....
2 months ago • 1 min read
THIS WEEK IN FOUND: This week: the version of yourself you learned to perform, and what it costs to keep up the act. Plus your weekly reflection question and one step worth taking before Sunday ends. The Character You Built at Twenty-Three I remember the exact moment I decided who I was going to be. Not consciously, not with any kind of ceremony. I was in a room full of people who seemed very sure of themselves, and I noticed I could match that energy. I could read the room and give it back...
2 months ago • 2 min read
THIS WEEK IN FOUND This week: the part of yourself you stopped looking at, and why it's quieter work than most people think. Plus your weekly reflection question and a soft introduction to the season ahead. What You Keep in the Back of the Closet There's a jacket in the back of my closet I haven't worn in years. Navy issue. Too tight now. I keep moving it every time I clean, and every time I move it, I tell myself the same thing. I'll deal with that later. This morning I finally pulled it...
2 months ago • 1 min read
