Have you ever heard that little voice tell you something like, “Count your change?”

You’re in a little shop somewhere and you don’t want to make anyone look bad, so you ignore the voice. Later, you discover you’ve been shortchanged or given a foreign coin on the sly.

The voice inside you knew.

Me too.

At forty, I found myself smack in the middle of a cliché: a full-on midlife crisis initiated by a heart-opening pilgrimage across northern Spain. Returning home from that journey, I was plagued by questions that seemed to have no answers:

What do I do with my life?

What am I here for?

Is this really all there is?  

I was a total blast at parties, I assure you. The voice was relentless: Time is running out!  I have to do something important! But what?

My panic prevented me from hearing the little voice that knows how to count change—and how to create change from within.

Life is a gift I want to use well.

If you can relate to this inner knowing (even if you don’t heed it) or the longing to do something significant with your precious time on earth (even if you’re not sure what that is), hello, kindred spirit.

Here are the practices I discovered that helped me make change:

Explore the world. Whether it’s exploring far-flung places and cultures, or kneeling on a forest floor to study a tiny wildflower close-up, seeking more helps us see.

Open the heart. Living courageously is about being present and brave enough to allow the veil of “socially acceptable” to fall away, reveal who you are, and to see others for who they are.

Surrender to the Divine. Though my religion of origin is Catholicism, I believe that the Divine is vast. Opening to the myriad practices that spark a connection between humanity and Wisdom is a path of healing.

Write like crazy. The practice of writing slows down the busy mind and opens us to new insight and truth. My regular practice includes keeping a journal, writing several blogs, and working on my first book, a memoir of my 2013 pilgrimage and resulting midlife transformation.

At home

When I’m not writing, my time is divided between self-employment as a ghostwriter and teaching business classes for my local community college. Our household is devoted to feline worship in general, and specifically to the god of Jasper (a 17-pound orange linebacker tabby) and goddess Pepper (our wily and waif-like tuxedo girl).

When my wife, Mary, and I are not dutifully providing warm laps for our spoiled cats, we’re out exploring the world, neighborhood parks, and great trails near water, together and solo.

If you want to be in touch, feel free to contact me!