Newsletter Archives
Take Two—12/18/2025
As the year comes to a close, reflection helps us turn experience into wisdom. In this issue, I explore the value of looking back—on our days, our moments, and the people who shaped them—and share a few reminders found on the streets of New York about beginning again, embracing pressure, and clearing the dust to see what matters most.
Ideas and inspiration for a more intentional, extraordinary life.
December 18, 2025
Words to Wonder:
Looking Back to Live Better
"We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience."
— John Dewey, philosopher and psychologist
"We don't remember days; we remember moments."
— Cesare Pavese, poet and novelist
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
— Annie Dillard, poet and author
Perspectives to Ponder
As the year comes to a close, I find it invaluable to pause and reflect on all that has filled it. Reflection has a way of quieting the noise and revealing what truly mattered—and what didn’t.
Looking back helps me notice patterns: whether I’ve been paying attention to what’s good or fixating on what’s wrong; whether I’ve lived reactively or intentionally; whether my days reflect the life I hope to be living. As Annie Dillard reminds us, our lives are simply the sum of our days—and how we choose to spend them matters.
One simple exercise I return to each year is this: set aside 20 or 30 quiet minutes and reflect on your favorite moments—and your least favorite ones. Naming them brings clarity. It becomes easier to schedule more of what energized you and to gently avoid what drained you in the year ahead.
Take time to reflect on the people you spent the most time with. Did those interactions leave you feeling encouraged or depleted? Did certain relationships bring out your best—or your worst? Awareness creates choice. And choice creates change.
As Cesare Pavese observed, we don’t remember days—we remember moments. What were your defining moments of 2025? The places you went. The experiences that stretched you. The challenges that taught you something important. Reflection turns experience into wisdom—and wisdom helps us move forward with greater intention and meaning.
Some people quickly jot down a list of New Year’s resolutions on January 1. Others skip reflection altogether. I prefer a slower approach. I take the entire month of January to reflect, reimagine, and review the systems and goals in my life—asking whether they truly support the way I want to live.
Socrates famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Reflection doesn’t have to be heavy or burdensome. Think of it as an invitation to relive the moments that made you smile, grow, and feel alive.
One of my favorite ways to begin is simple: scroll back to January in your photo reel and move forward, moment by moment. It’s a powerful reminder of just how much life you lived this year—and a beautiful way to appreciate it all.
I hope reflecting on 2025 brings gratitude for the moments that mattered—and clarity for how you want to live in the year ahead.
THREE REMINDERS FROM THE STREETS OF NYC
When I travel, I try to slow down enough to notice the details—the things you’d miss if you were rushing from one destination to the next. While walking through New York this week, three images caught my eye. Each felt like a reminder worth carrying home.
1. YOU CAN BEGIN AGAIN
“New York is the end of your past and place of rebirth.”
Many people come to New York to leave something behind and start over. A past version of themselves. A chapter that no longer fits.
The good news? You don’t have to move to New York to do that.
Any day can be a reset. Any moment can be a turning point. Starting fresh isn’t about geography—it’s about choice. We can all leave the past where it belongs and begin again, if we’re willing to decide that today is different.
2. PRESSURE IS A PRIVILEGE
Pressure only exists when something matters.
If no one expects anything of you, if nothing important is at stake, if no one is depending on you—there’s no pressure. But there’s also very little meaning.
Pressure can be uncomfortable, even heavy at times. But it’s also a reminder that you’re in the arena—engaged, responsible, alive—rather than standing safely on the sidelines. The weight you feel is often the cost of doing something that matters.
3. WASH THE DUST AWAY
“Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life.”
Life gets messy. Repetition dulls our senses. Routines pile up, and before we know it, the wonder is covered in dust.
Sometimes we need to pause and clear it away.
For some, that might be music. For others, a deep conversation, time in nature, prayer, movement, or quiet solitude. Whatever does it for you, take a few moments to wash the dust away—so you can see clearly again the extraordinary things that are already happening all around you.
BEFORE YOU GO
I’ve spent a lot of time in New York. Vicky and I were married in Central Park, and we return every year.
This time, we arrived in fresh snow and 20-degree weather. That single change—snow—made everything feel different. Of all my years visiting New York, this one stood apart. Central Park—so familiar to us—had been transformed into a winter wonderland.
It was a simple but powerful reminder: sometimes one change can transform everything.
As you look ahead to 2026, consider one action—one habit, one decision, one shift in focus—that could quietly change the trajectory of your life. You don’t have to overhaul everything. You don’t need a long list of resolutions.
Sometimes, one intentional change is enough.
Stay inspired by the life you’re living,
Kevin