TL;DR: This week I was on base, in coaching conversations, on a Teams call with 100 people, at dinner with an old friend, and standing in the Grand Canyon. The thread that kept surfacing: how hard it is to see a path before it’s obvious - and the willingness to take the first cut anyway. 

TSN 26.13: “On Seeing the Path” 

March 29, 2026 

Hiya

At the Grand Canyon, the South Kaibab Trail was built in the 1920s to connect the South Rim to the Colorado River. Crews carved their way through rock, leaving us a trail we can hike today. Walkin' down that trail into the Canyon on Saturday, I let myself wonder:

How did they know where to carve, cut, dynamite...or avoid?

I've hiked through the Grand Canyon 7 times now... this trip took us down South Kaibab, across Tonto, and back up via Bright Angel. Fourteen-plus miles. Seven and a half hours. I know the route now. I know what it asks of me. When to drink. When to slow down.

When to trust the next turn even if I can’t see the one after that, yet. 

There’s an expanse down there that the word big doesn’t do justice to. I stopped talking after a while. The only sound was my own breathing and the click click of hiking poles on rock. 

Earlier in the week, I was on base. Moving between offices, I joined conversations that weren’t planned. Another day, a full day of coaching. Sitting with people trying to work things out in real time. I also got to work with a small group of senior leaders... a dream-come-true part of my job.

At one point, I noticed how easy it is to stay on the surface of a conversation. To keep moving. To not sit long enough for something real to show up. I often as people to stay... a little longer.

On a run with my boss, we talked about signal and noise. What it takes to listen for hasn’t been said...for what needs more attention. I could feel how much patience that requires. 

Thursday I was on a Teams call with about a hundred people. Some in a room together, others spread out across the country. I asked them to sit in silence for a bit. I offered some journaling prompts that REALLY got them thinking...

And, I asked them to sit with (and reply to) one of those prompts a little longer than people expect. 

After that lecture, we drove to Goodyear... and had dinner with a friend from another season of life. The kind of friendship that’s tied to a place and a time that doesn’t exist anymore in the same way. 

I noticed how different I feel in those same conversations now. 

Saturday in the canyon, I felt strong. Steady. Step after step. Breathing. Paying attention. Trusting the path because I’ve walked it before. 

In my work, I'm slowly gaining that familiarity. Kind of like those engineers looking thousands of feet down canyon walls, it sometimes feels like I’m asking people to step onto something they can’t see yet. 

Sometimes it feels like I’m still trying to see it myself. 

Walking through the canyon, looking back at the vastness of the trail we followed, I kept coming back to the same prompt. 

Not how the whole path gets built. Just where the next cut goes. 

Right now, what feels steady is this: I want to help people. 

And I’m willing to do the work I’m asking of them. 

That’s where I’m standing. 

Sending love from Pasadena. 

JW 

PS: I'm OOO this week, I get to serve a few groups in San Antonio and then I'll be mountain biking with a buddy in San Luis Obispo. Hit reply, let me know how you are...