A Winter Nature Walk and the Passage of Time with My Son
A December walk through snowy woods leads to thoughts on parenting, time passing, and how connection changes as children grow.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Enjoy the Life You Have
We all have a tendency to look at others and compare ourselves. It’s almost automatic. We notice who’s doing better, moving faster, earning more, living louder. Before we realize it, we’re measuring our own lives against someone else’s.
But it’s not our best instinct.
Comparison pulls us away from our own experience. It convinces us that we’re behind, even when we’re living a life that once would have felt like more than enough. That tension is one of the reasons I started writing Embracing Enough. Not because I’ve figured it out, but because I feel it too. Because it’s easy to postpone contentment, and even living, while waiting for some future version of life to arrive.
A good test for me has been spending time around very successful people. Business owners who are growing fast, making a lot of money, stacking wins. When I’m around them, I ask myself a simple question: Would I trade lives with them?
The answer is no.
I’m writing this while walking in the woods in the middle of a random Thursday afternoon on a beautiful, sunny day in January. The kind of time you don’t schedule. The light is low and golden, the trees bare, the ground soft with leaves. Somewhere else, I know many of those same people are thinking about money. Managing it. Worrying about it. Chasing more of it.
I’m here instead.
Then I see him.
A big black vulture standing on the forest floor ahead of me. Solid. Unbothered. When he notices me, he doesn’t panic. He just moves. Heavy wings. Awkward lift. He settles into a tree nearby and watches. Still. Present.
There’s something about him that feels declarative.
No comparison. No hurry. Just: I’m here.
That moment brings to mind some notes I once jotted down listening to Warren Buffet talk. Not polished thoughts. Just lines that stuck with me:
Don’t experience envy. Massive advantage.Recognize it and name it.Someone will always be getting richer faster than you.This is no tragedy.
I don’t read these as rules I’ve mastered. They’re reminders. Envy still shows up sometimes. Comparison still sneaks in. But I’m getting better at noticing it for what it is, a pull away from my own life and into someone else’s.
Envy isn’t really about money. It’s about attention. And comparison has a way of convincing us that real life starts later, once we have more, once we catch up.
Later that same day, my mom called. She had just found out that her younger brother was diagnosed with a rare form of heart cancer. It hit her hard. When I asked why, she told me something that stopped me.
Her brother and his wife had spent years waiting. Waiting while their mom lived to be 91. Waiting to travel. Waiting to really start living. And now, just a year after their mom passed, both of them are facing serious health issues.
“So what’s the lesson?” I asked her.
“You have to live your life,” she said.
That landed.
Someone will always have more money. Someone will always be more successful. And none of that guarantees time. None of it guarantees health. None of it guarantees that later will come.
At its core, this day kept circling the same message.
Enjoy the life you have.
Don’t compare it to someone else’s.
And make sure you’re actually living.
Life doesn’t start later. It’s happening now. On a quiet walk in the woods. In a hard phone call with your mom. In noticing a bird settle into a tree and simply exist there.
The vulture doesn’t wait. He doesn’t postpone his life. He occupies his place without apology or comparison.
I’m trying to do more of that.
To notice envy without feeding it.
To step out of comparison and back into my own life.
Not less ambition. Just ambition with perspective.
Not perfection. Just presence.
Enjoy the life you have.
“Know what’s enough. Build what matters.”
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