Often we chatter (calling it “talk”) when we’re nervous or anxious. We just want to fill the space around us. God forbid people pay attention to us. Talking can distract them we think. Otherwise they may judge us or not like us and reject us.

Once you learn to be quiet with yourself though, you can be with others without all those worries and concerns. Learning what you’re made of helps you accept yourself and helps you understand why you do certain things. It’s just a matter of becoming familiar with what’s inside of you. Just like everything else, familiarity helps us accept it.

Once we accept ourselves and all our flaws, it’s no longer frightening that others might find out. We can be more calm – and quiet.

Find a way to see inside and be quiet. Meditation helps. Just sitting with yourself is just as good too. Nothing fancy is needed.

Try to see if you can sit in total quiet without distraction for 1-2 minutes. Then build up to 5 minutes and so on. You’re probably laughing but it’s not that easy when you’re not used to it.

You’ll end up feeling really good once you’ve achieved your first 2 minutes of quiet.

She was performing on America’s Got Talent. At the time she was on, she had a 2% chance of survival with active cancer. She sang a song called “it’s ok”.

I waste a lot of time watching the short movie reels on facebook but last week I saw two that changed my perspective on everything.

One was this appearance by nightbirde and the other was a performance by a young girl (I think she was 18 or 19) who had endured many years of bullying. The courage she showed standing up there risking ridicule and rejection was overwhelming.

These two young women represent the strength and courage I aspire to. I know these women will be my role models in everything I do in 2026.

You have the strength and courage Dig deep and pull them out whenever you feel scared or nervous. You’re not being bullied and you probably have more than a 2% chance of survival so what’s holding you back?

It’s an amazing expanse of land we have. It was a really long trip, 2 days 1000 miles. What a stark contrast that’s going to be for the next 6 days. It’s so interesting to me how much of the US i get to see going to these events – most of my races are east of San Antonio where everything is green. This race, though, is to the west where everything is brown….and desolate.

It reminds me so much of my attempted trek across the United States in 2019. That was much more of a success for me than you can imagine even though I didn’t complete it.

It was the beginning of my change. It laid the groundwork for IFS to do its magic in the following years.

Talk about stepping out of your comfort zone. Although I had wanted to do that for 30 years I had never had the courage until 2019. But wanting to and actually doing are two different things.

It required me to make work decisions and therefore decisions affecting my income. Would I retire or not?

I had to have consistency and determination to walk every day but one every week.

I was supposed to have been able to survive on my own and I was prepared to but ended up having support every day. Once again. The universe was looking out for me.

I had to learn to accept help from total strangers. That was the hardest of all. Even harder than covering all the miles.

I made friends for life. People who had never met or even heard of me came out to support me in any way i needed.

I would love to finish it but know that I now need support and just don’t have enough people to do that. I am asking the universe for guidance.

Why is if still so deep within me. I don’t know why. I only know that I really want to continue to see the country I served.

Thanks for listening to me ramble.