We spend a lot of time talking about beginnings and endings. Fresh starts. Clean slates. Big breakthroughs. And when things fall apart, we talk about closure. Letting go. Moving on. But most of life doesn’t happen at the beginning or the end. It happens in the middle. The middle is where the excitement has worn off, but the payoff hasn’t arrived. Where you’re no longer who you were, but not yet who you’re becoming. Where motivation dips, doubts get louder, and the question qu

"Calm Seas Do Not Make for Skillful Sailors" - African Proverb Most people think calm is a personality trait. You either have it or you don’t. You’re naturally grounded or you’re not. Some people stay steady, while others fall apart. This story is comforting if you’re already calm. However, it can feel brutal if you’re not. The truth is less glamorous but far more hopeful. Calm is not passive. It’s not merely a vibe. It’s not the absence of stress. Calm is an active skill th

I feel that I need to start this post with a caveat: you do not always need to repair just because someone else is upset. A part of internal self-esteem and sense of self is knowing oneself well enough to determine the difference between when we are truly in the wrong versus when someone else is upset because we simply aren't who they want us to be. Most of us walk around with a quiet fear of getting it wrong. We’re terrified of hurting someone, disappointing them, or reveal

People talk about joy as if it’s an emotion that strikes out of nowhere like a weather pattern. One minute nothing, the next minute sunshine. But joy, in the way most of us experience it, isn’t an accident. It isn’t even a feeling that arrives fully formed. In the Sheade house, we have a little plaque on our mantel that says “Happiness is something you decide ahead of time.” Joy is a spiritual principle that gets built one quiet gratitude at a time. Most of the people I sit w