92: Little Jolt of Joy – Life is Short! – Don’t Let Stumbling Blocks Stop You!

Don’t Let Stumbling Blocks Get in the Way of a Short Life

I’m back, after a much longer break than planned, a vacation followed by a completely botched computer, a hopeless repair attempt, a new computer purchase, and the slow process of trying to remember how I set everything up a year ago just to get rolling again. I don’t have my intro or outro back yet. This one is coming out closer to a raw, unfiltered reflection than a traditional episode, but I wanted to get something out there, rusty or not.

A heavy week

I found out this morning that my daughter’s soccer coach passed away unexpectedly, with the season starting next week. It’s been a rough summer of unexpected losses, and knowing a loss is coming never makes it any easier than one that arrives out of nowhere. He was a phenomenal man, a father, teacher, and coach across soccer, special teams, and our club team, someone who impacted an enormous number of lives in the time he had. The messages flooding in since are genuinely heartwarming, a real testament to the difference one person can make.

Everything else pales, and that’s exactly the point

Next to something like that, the small stumbling blocks that had felt defeating to me lately, a broken computer, a delayed podcast, a missed self-imposed deadline, all seem almost silly by comparison. But that contrast is exactly what pushed me to get back here. I want to make an impact in the lives of the people who’ve joined this community, who’ve told me it makes a difference in how they feel about their homes and their lives. I told you all I’d be gone a week, and it turned into two and a half. I’m not going to let that derail me further. I’ve done this before, I can do it again. Progress over perfection, do something, because something is always better than staying stuck in nothing. In honor of a coach who spent his life building up kids and shining a light for them, the invitation is the same for the rest of us: try your very best at whatever makes you feel fulfilled and makes a difference for someone else, so that whenever your time comes, whether tomorrow or decades from now, people can say you mattered to them.

Turning fifty, without apology

All of this landed the same week I turned fifty. Half a century feels like a real milestone, and I know women are often nudged toward being coy about age, someone even sent me a birthday message joking about “the fortieth.” I’m claiming every single one of my fifty years. I wouldn’t give up a single decade. Life is precious, fleeting, and fragile, and I refuse to hide from any part of mine or pretend any of it away. I’m deeply grateful for a wonderful family, good friends, and now this community too.

A few milestones worth noting anyway

Even though goals can feel like silly vanity metrics sometimes, I don’t want to discount them entirely, they push us toward things we might otherwise hold ourselves back from. I’m close enough to fifty reviews once international ones are counted, I’ve put out a hundred total episodes counting bonus content, and I’ve surpassed my original download goal. None of that matters compared to a life well lived, but reaching for these numbers helped me keep showing up, and that counts for something.

Thank you for being here through the gap, and for the patience while I get my footing back. Until next time, continue to choose joy.