TL;DR: The most important things I carry, I found. I found them in books, in biographies, in the lives of people who went all in on who they were. The ones who shaped me most were already deep into their work long before I was paying attention. I've been learning to receive what they left behind. Grateful for every page. 

On Giants 

TSN 26.25

 
Hiya,

Monday through Saturday. 80 senior Air Force leaders at Maxwell. A handful of SNCOs at Gunter. Four conversations... ICF-level executive coaching for teams looking to the future. Six hours with the American Legion on a Saturday to discuss the next decade of leadership.

Different rooms. Same presence.

By Saturday evening, I wasn't tired. I was settled. That's a different feeling.

I'm still learning to recognize it.

I've been thinking about the people who taught me most of what I know about showing up. 've never met any of them.

I used to think the best gifts were the ones I put on a wish list. The more I open books, especially biographies, the more I find something I didn't know was mine for the taking.

Bruce Lee owned his power. He knew no one else could do what he did, so he focused on teaching the mindset, not the moves. Knowing I'm the only one who can do what I do isn't arrogance. It's a starting point.

It took me a long time to say that out loud.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh kept pressing pen to paper. Through the highs no one could imagine, and through the lows no one should have to survive. She navigated alongside Charles. Not behind him.

Not in front. Alongside.

That word does a lot of work.

I still wonder what she was thinking that she couldn't write down.

Richard Feynman led with curiosity. Lived with everything he had. He trusted that if you really know something, you can explain it simply. That's not a shortcut.

That's proof.

Hap Arnold built the Air Force as I know it. He drove himself through four (4!) heart attacks during World War II and kept going. He believed in finding the best people and wasn't sentimental about the ones who couldn't keep up. He understood the vision had to outlast the visionary. He retired from Hamilton Airfield in Novato. The town where I grew up. I didn't know that until recently.

Some things leave a mark on a place before you arrive.

This week, in every room, I watched myself keep up with the people in front of me. In real time. Not running out ahead. Not falling behind.

Alongside.

I shared what was coming through me in that moment. Not just what I'd prepared. Not what the room expected. What was true, right then.

That's the part I didn't invent.

What I come with isn't what I made. I can see it because of where I'm standing. Giants held still long enough. There are more than four of them - I just wrote about the ones that I felt watching over me this week. I intend to into the next room the same way I walked into all the others this week.

All of me.

Present.

Grateful for the shoulders.

Still learning what I'm standing on.

Sending love from CA,

JW

PS: I didn't see THIS coming... on Friday night, the local historical society provided the community with a FIELD TRIP... wandering around the cemetery, the next thing I knew I was here: