06/11/2026
My daughter graduated this weekend.
And I keep coming back to one thing — not the ceremony, not the photos, not even the moment she walked across the stage.
It is the morning of. The kitchen. The two of us getting ready together. Her asking me to fix her hair. Me actually being there for it. Not half there. Not running on fumes and caffeine and whatever I had left after the week. Actually there.
I do not take that for granted.
Because there were years — not long ago — when I would have shown up to a moment like that and given it the managed version of me. The version that was present in the room but not quite present in the moment. The version that was already thinking about what came next, or how tired she was, or whether she had enough left to stay in the day.
Parents in this season know what I mean.
The kids are getting older. The big moments are coming whether we are ready or not. Graduations and milestones and ordinary Tuesday mornings that turn out to be the ones you remember.
And the question I keep asking myself — the one that drives the work I do — is not how do I manage my energy better.
It is how do I actually show up for this.
Fully. Not provisionally. Not with one eye on how much I have left.
The phase is fleeting. I do not want to watch it from a slight remove.
If you are in this season and you know exactly what I mean — I see you. And this is why the work matters.