After a couple of years away, I'm returning to the blogosphere. With my "grand return", I had envisioned launching an all-new site, taking on a more anonymous profile to lay bare deep wounds, elevate my brand, and disassociate from the musings, mistakes, and hurts that characterized the "old me", all against the backdrop of a Meghan Markle-worthy neutral color palette and minimalist font and layout. The reality is, life is a journey, an evolution. It's full of color, bright and dull; images, experiences, feelings, people, textures, patterns, all colliding in a messy tapestry that can sometimes feel like it's smothering while other times offering comfort. As much as I would want to erase and shake off the past, I can't. It's woven into the tapestry of my life and has made me who I am today. Maybe, one day, I'll get around to updating the site layout to something more sleek, minimalist, and hauntingly modern. But for now, I've kept my old posts and interviews and the site's original color and design palette.
So where to begin... So much has happened in the intervening two-plus years between my last blog post and this latest post - new jobs (and I mean the plural part), heartbreak, betrayal, abandonment, death, more travel, a new apartment and a new car, a renewed faith and an amazing faith community, new friendships, old friendships ending, a layoff, medical / health challenges, a broken engagement, you name it. While I don't have any of the hallmarks of a socially-acceptable, successful life to show for it - you know, a husband, 2.5 kids, and the house with the picket fence - I've had many rich experiences and learned a lot. As several interviewers have said to me after hearing me recount my 15 years of professional experience, "Wow, you've done so much; I didn't realize." Sometimes I, too, fail to realize how much living and learning I've done, discrediting my experiences because they don't come traditionally packaged or validated by big titles, accolades, or the dreaded social media "likes". I've mingled with billionaires, went yachting in the South of France, danced salsa in Cuba, etc., but it's really the small moments in between that I would measure my life by and that I'm excited to share, including wisdom from new friends (I see you, Ricardo and Paul) and rekindled mentors and friendships (I see you, Philippe, Kelvin, and Robyn). It's hard to know where to start, but I'm looking forward to unpacking so many lessons, heartaches, laughs, tears (of joy and pain), travels, and travails. I might even catch up with a few of my original interviewees (I see you, Melissa, "Grand Judy", and Matt) to see what they've been up to, what more they've learned, and how their journeys have evolved.
I invite you to come along for the ride. Comment if you feel so inclined, challenge my thinking and interpretation of events if you disagree. I just ask for civility, kindness, and self-awareness. I don't know how far this blog will go, if one day I will turn it into a podcast as some have recommended, or if I'll even promote it on social media again. But if this blog helps just one person feel better understood, less alone, and more able to take on life's challenges, then it will have been worth it, even if that one person is me.
Photo courtesy of Joel S.
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