A Love Letter to New Beginnings

When the scariest invitation becomes the most beautiful connection

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This Week’s Courage Newsletter

"You are where you are today because you stand on somebody's shoulders... If you stand on the shoulders of others, you have a reciprocal responsibility to live your life so that others may stand on your shoulders." - Vernon Jordan

Why tiny acts of connection change everything

This Week’s Scare Your Soul Challenge: The Ten-Minute Invitation

Bottom line: Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is reach out to someone new

Dear Courageous Souls (and Reluctant Heart-Openers),

Years ago, in a tiny Cleveland Heights apartment, an empty chair taught me everything I needed to know about courage.

It wasn't a special chair.

Just a simple wooden one I'd grabbed from my bedroom to make up the second seat at my tiny dining table.

But as the steam rose from a pot of homemade chili and the winter sun painted long shadows across my floor, that empty chair felt like it held all the weight of my fears.

Sarah's yoga mat always occupied the back corner of the studio, precisely three tiles from the wall.

For months, I'd watched her perfect the art of invisibility – arriving just as class began, disappearing moments before the final namaste.

I have to admit … it reminded me of my own carefully constructed walls, my own expertly timed exits.

The clock struck 6:58. Then 6:59.

My inner critic (you know, that voice that sounds suspiciously like your most judgmental relative) began its well-rehearsed monologue:

"She won't come." "This is embarrassing." "Who actually invites strangers to dinner?" "You don't even have matching plates..."

At 7:03, a knock.

What unfolded wasn't just dinner.

It was one of those rare evenings where time loses its grip on reality, where conversation flows and where two strangers realize they've been walking parallel paths all along.

Sarah, it turned out, had spent two years building schools in Peru's Sacred Valley. As she described her experiences, I saw something familiar in her eyes – that same mixture of wonder and uncertainty I felt every damn day.

That evening changed everything.

Not in a lightning-bolt way, but in the quiet way that the most important things often do. One dinner became many. A stranger became a friend.

And that empty chair became a reminder that sometimes, the bravest thing we can do is simply make space for someone new.

This Week’s Scare Your Soul Challenge:

Today's challenge is delightfully simple, terrifyingly straightforward, and potentially life-changing.

Your Ten-Minute Mission (should you choose to accept it):

Right now – yes, this very moment – reach out to someone who intrigues you.

• The barista who remembers your complicated coffee order.

• The colleague who shares fascinating articles in Slack.

• Your neighbor who makes homebaked goodies and leaves them in the mail room.

• The person you've always wanted to know better.

Send a text. Write an email.

Make the invitation.

Keep it simple: "Would you like to grab coffee sometime?" is perfect.

The only rule? You have ten minutes from reading this sentence.

No planning. No perfectionism. Just pure, beautiful courage in action.

Will your hands shake a little as you type? Probably.

Will you second-guess your words? Almost certainly.

Might they say no? Perhaps.

But what if they say yes?

What if, somewhere across town, someone else is sitting with their own empty chair, waiting for exactly this invitation?

With courage, hope, and slightly mismatched plates,