It Wasn’t Complicated After All
My son is spending Christmas away for the first time.
Twenty-nine years of shared rituals, and now a quiet change.
I didn’t have an issue with him going. That part felt clean.
What hurt was something else.
I wasn’t held in mind.
Plans were made — with friends, with travel, with what came next — and somehow I wasn’t part of the orientation. When dates were offered later, they landed flat. January 25 didn’t feel like a celebration. It felt like a placeholder.
The meaning that came immediately was familiar:
I don’t matter. I’m not a priority.
True Freedom: The Courage to Let Things Die
I met my client in the redwoods of the Oakland Hills. For our meetings, we hike together — moving through quiet trails, letting the rhythm of walking open the rhythm of conversation.
I’ve had the great honor of working with him off and on for over ten years. In that time, he’s left the tech world, built his own business, and grown into a leader who trusts himself completely.
Today, as we walked beneath the trees, he shared a story about negotiating a lease for a new store in a Santa Clara development. When the numbers didn’t align, he walked away.