It’s day 52 since Kelsey Pfendler reached her goal destination in Oʻahu, Hawaii, on July 3, 2026. It was a solo trek of more than 2,400 miles from Monterey, California, where social onlookers cheered, and where the US Coast Guard sang happy birthday as she turned 32 at sea.
I spoke about this bravery on my show – first questioning if there was an expiry date on courage as we get older. And later wondering if courageous acts are reserved for the young – where the harshness of life hasn’t yet set in. But isn’t it especially true that the older we get and the more pain we’ve experienced (including when we were young), the more we should take heart? To dig in. Get it done. Whatever that thing is.
Maybe it’s a move. Maybe it’s standing ground. Maybe it’s just practicing being less afraid. Maybe it’s just being less afraid to love more – what do I know?
I have been having conversations lately with people whose courage has been inspiring, and whose adventures would be nothing without it. There’s IssaMary Blanco, who has travelled to and lived in several countries where she had to learn the new language(s) and then teach others the same. Then there was my recent encounter with the real fall guy, stuntman Aaron Crippen, who drives like Batman, has been set on fire and purposely jumps from high-rise buildings as if it were routine. And most recently, I had the privilege of talking with a retired FBI agent who worked special ops in counterterrorism and within a drug squad on the streets of Chicago (that conversation goes live in the next few weeks).
Courage is contagious, if not acting as a mirror to hold up against our own action, or in action. Then it’s just powerful conviction. It taunts – what have you done or not done lately? It’s so easy for us to sit on the sidelines, within what we think is the safe zone and poke fun at, criticize, and mock the ones in the ring whose hearts might be twice the size of ours… all the while missing the essence of our own lives as we sit and watch idly by.
We are not all lions, but we love to run with them or watch from a distance. Deep, deep down, we have what it takes too. But what’s the take? What do you want most – what should you want most, and who’s depending on you?
Even now. Perhaps especially now, we can still muster the courage to squeeze as much fearless life and love as possible into what we have left… especially for the sake of the ones we leave behind.
Fall is coming. Take heart and be of good courage.
xo
