Peeling Mushrooms? That’s a name.

While you’re here, indulge me for a few minutes. Let me tell you why I picked it…

April 2024.

The month I adjusted to being a new dad. Also the month I binged through the first two seasons of The Bear.

That show was all the rage across social media. I wanted to be part of the conversation, to be up to date on the memes, to be part of that fandom.

Being part of anything requires part of you. Any group, any family, any team, any community, anything outside of yourself.

We make commitments to everything around us, every day.

We give our attention to everything around us - far too freely, and more than we’d all like to admit.

We give our time and ourselves to our families, to our work, to others, in varying ratios.

And at the end of it all, when we finally “take time for ourselves,” we’re often still giving to someone else.

Scrolling TikTok. Paying for a massage. Playing a video game. Binging The Bear.

What are we really taking for ourselves in those moments? A temporary reprieve?

If we used that reprieve to leave something of meaning for others…

Would it be less temporary? Might it return to us in the other moments when we need it most?

Buried in Forks from The Bear, there’s a moment that felt clarifying for me. This moment of taking time for oneself, in service of others, becomes a moment of meaningful self-discovery and growth.

Ironically, this video couldn’t take a few more seconds to show where Richie asked Chef Terry what her father signed off all those letters with.

He doesn’t hear the answer from her, but he sees it on the walls, the omnipresent advice that he never stopped to notice but has shaped his entire journey up to that moment:

EVERY SECOND COUNTS.

As you read this newsletter, know that this is my act of taking time for myself, in service of others, hoping it leads to meaningful self-discovery for both of us.

Thanks for joining me at my little kitchen table in a corner of the internet.