Grit, Gratitude, & Grace Newsletter Reader 1 Insight From Me October 2024. Looking back at the year, people kept saying: "You handled this with such grace." The word "grace" made me uncomfortable because it suggested some kind of spiritual or emotional advantage I had. But I didn't have grace naturally. I practiced it. What people saw as grace was actually discipline. Early in the crisis, I made a framework for gratitude. It wasn't "think positive thoughts" or "find the silver lining." Those...
26 days ago • 2 min read
Grit, Gratitude, & Grace Newsletter Reader 1 Insight From Me Late October 2024. People kept asking: "Are you recovering?" And I'd say: "From what?" Not because the year didn't hurt. It did. Florena's cancer treatment was brutal. Job loss was disorienting. Financial stress was real. But recovery implies going back to where you were. And I'm not going back. The question isn't: How do I recover from 2024? The question is: How do I build on 2024? Because 2024 wasn't a detour from my real life. It...
just now • 2 min read
Grit, Gratitude, & Grace Newsletter Reader 1 Insight From Me Late October 2024. The year that started with "we might not survive this" is ending with "we designed our lives intentionally." I took time to review the year systematically. Not with rose-tinted glasses, but with honest data. What I found when I looked back: The crisis didn't create who I became. It revealed who I could become if I chose to. Every framework in these newsletters—systems, delegation, consistency, energy management,...
just now • 2 min read
Grit, Gratitude, & Grace Newsletter Reader 1 Insight From Me October 2024. Ten months since the diagnosis. I took inventory of something important: Which practices from crisis are staying? Which are disappearing now that things have stabilized? This matters because the difference between temporary coping and permanent transformation is integration. Lots of people survive crisis by doing things they hate. They journal because they're broken. They meditate because they're anxious. They exercise...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Grit, Gratitude, & Grace Newsletter Reader 1 Insight From Me January 2024. Cancer diagnosis. Job loss. $60K debt. The crisis felt like an ending. September 2024. Nine months later. Same crisis. Completely different lens. Florena was through six months of treatment. Financial plan in place. Community had shown up. Systems had proven themselves. The crisis hadn't gone away. But what it meant had changed entirely. In January: This will destroy us. In September: This is refining us. In January: I...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Grit, Gratitude, & Grace Newsletter Reader 1 Insight From Me September 2024. Nine months into crisis. Three months until the end of the year. Most people would coast into Q4. You've survived this long—just finish the year. But I did something different. I sat down with the data from nine months and asked: What's working? What do I want to amplify in Q4? What do I need to let go? I looked at what had succeeded: Systems: The morning routine, weekly reviews, job search protocol had 90%+ success....
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Grit, Gratitude, & Grace Newsletter Reader 1 Insight From Me April 2024. The church meal train started. People signed up. A schedule was made. Meals arrived daily—meal that aligned with our plant-based diet. It felt miraculous. By May, I realized: This can't last forever. The people giving meals have their own lives. Their own crises. Their own needs. At some point, the meal train ends. People naturally move on. The community does what it can, then returns to normal. And when it ends, you...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Grit, Gratitude, & Grace Newsletter Reader 1 Insight From Me June 2024. Four months into crisis. I paused and did something I'd never done before: I audited the last 90 days systematically. What worked? What didn't? What changed? What stayed the same? Where was I investing energy that produced nothing? Where was I investing energy that compounded? I looked at the data: Morning routine consistency: 87 out of 90 days (97%) Days where I felt grounded by it: 87 out of 87 Days I skipped it and...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Grit, Gratitude, & Grace Newsletter Reader 1 Insight From Me August 2026. I'm publishing my 50th newsletter in this "Grit, Gratitude & Grace" series. Fifty weeks of insights. Fifty weeks of frameworks. Fifty weeks of stories from 2024. Looking back at these 50 newsletters, I see a clear progression of what actually saved me—not what I thought would save me, but what actually did. What didn't work: Motivation. I waited for it. It never came. Systems saved me, not motivation. Willpower. I tried...
2 months ago • 2 min read