We toured FDR's summer cottage, where he got polio at 39. Standing in those rooms, I couldn't stop asking whether our hardest moments take from us or make us.

I always thought suffering was something other people did. Then a friend who spent his life in ministry asked a question that reframed forty years of my own.

I watched Road House recently, and one line has stuck with me for weeks. Nobody ever wins a fight. It got me thinking about every argument I've ever won.

On August 14, FROM WITHIN closed at Curtis Memorial Library. A boy of about 7 looked at paintings made inside a Virginia prison and said he couldn’t believe prisoners made them. We learn pretty early how we are supposed to think about certain people.

I sat down with Rob Reider around a fire in the woods. He founded Sad Dads Club after he and his wife lost their daughter, Lila. What he taught me about grief has stayed with me since.

My friend Jonathan lost his hearing the same season he lost his wife. He chose not to be bitter, because bitterness would mean living a life that wasn’t his.

A Haitian saying from Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money sent me into a Durham, NC coffee shop with a question. What happens when you ask three strangers to share a snack and a conversation with you? The first Sharing Cake story.

I sat down with Carlos Walker in front of a fireplace in Bethesda, Maryland. Carlos spent 13 years in prison. He’s sold over 14,000 books hand to hand. And he said something I keep coming back to: “People always see the butterfly. But you have to hear the caterpillar story.”

I bought a cacao fruit at a market in Costa Rica. When I opened it up, it was overripe. My first instinct was to take it back. That was fear talking. Then love stepped in and changed my perspective.

Connection has been one of my go-to words throughout this adventure. But recently I realized it might not be the right one. Connection can be one-way. Relationship never is.

On the afternoon of my 49th birthday, I went to a memorial service. What followed was a room full of old friends, tears of sorrow and joy, and a reminder of what actually matters.

Briddge and Cherrie Orius are the first married couple to sit down for a Campfire Conversation. They debated, pushed back, and kept going. They showed me what love in practice looks like.

The FROM WITHIN Art Show is officially live. 5 incarcerated artists. 3 bridges. Over $1,000 raised on day one. Here’s what it’s about, where it’s going, and how to support it from anywhere.

Two books about wildness, cages, and freedom. One replaces the box with a different box. The other says the butterfly blueprint is already inside you. Purple nail polish, six-foot waves, and the case for living as your whole self.

Michael Douglas grew up watching the woods disappear. It made him angry for years. Then he chose love. A Campfire Conversation about fear, fire, and what it takes to become an adult warrior.

It was our last week in Costa Rica. My wife and I were watching the sunset when she challenged something I said about fear. What surprised me was how quickly the dance between love and fear came to life in my own words.

Business models create incentives. Incentives shape behavior. This post explores why the way AI companies make money might matter more than the AI itself.

Sam Harris spent 25 years in prison. When he came home, the first thing he noticed wasn't how much the world had changed. It was how much angrier it had gotten.

I met a free horse on the beach in Costa Rica. Not tied up. Not behind a fence. Just free. What happened next, and the connections that followed, reminded me that sometimes the best mornings aren't the ones you plan.

223 days ago I launched the Heart-Strong Adventure. One post. One question. One year to follow it. A lot has happened since then. The adventure isn't ending. It's evolving.