What happens when you discover a power so profound at age 10 that it terrifies you into silence for two decades?

In this episode, I share a story about a fourth-grade writing assignment that made someone cry—and changed everything. It's about stumbling onto the ability to make people feel through words, then spending 20 years too scared to try again.

Why do we hide our creative powers? What does it cost us? And how do we finally stop?

This is about fear, perfectionism, the myths we tell ourselves about writing, and what it takes to step out of the shadows and start again—even when you're terrified.

Also: behind-the-scenes bloopers, because starting is always the hardest part.

What if the meaning of life isn't hiding in some grand revelation, but in your fuzzy white blanket on a Friday night? In this inaugural episode, Michelle lights a pine candle (literally and metaphorically) and asks: why are we so obsessed with happiness when pain is basically part of the package deal of being alive?

Spoiler alert: This isn't a self-help show. Michelle doesn't have a 10-point plan to fix you. She doesn't even have one point. What she does have is curiosity about what lives on the other side of misery-- that space where grief holds hands with love, where meaning hides in the mundane, and where we learn to work with the flame instead of just getting burned.

Expect philosophy, psychology, sacred ordinary moments, and the occasional existential question asked at 1 AM. Also expect bloopers, because Michelle is very tired and her microphone smells like pine.

Welcome to a living conversation about meaning, eudaimonia (pronounced however you want), and what it means to be deeply, messily human.