15/08/2026
Sometimes life gets your attention in the most interesting ways.
Today, it was a pancake. 🥞
I had breakfast with a dear friend who is in her early 70s and has been living with cancer for the past year. She recently made the decision to stop treatment, knowing that her time may be much shorter than any of us would like.
It was a hard visit.
And a wonderful one.
The kind that reminds you to sit a little longer. Listen a little closer. Laugh at the ridiculously giant pancake sitting in front of you. And really appreciate the person across the table.
After breakfast, I stopped by our local bookstore to pick up a book for my son.
As I was walking through the store, another book caught my eye: The Cafe at the Edge of the World.
I picked it up, opened it…and the very first word my eyes landed on was:
Pancake.
I bought the book. 😊
Then I turned it over and saw the three questions on the back:
Why are you here?
Are you afraid of death?
Are you fulfilled?
After the morning I had just experienced, those questions landed differently.
Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it was serendipity. Maybe it was just one of those little moments in life that makes you pay attention.
But I've been thinking about that first question ever since.
Why are you here?
Not what do you do for work.
Not what do you own.
Not what are you supposed to accomplish next.
Why are you here?
I think the answer is different for every one of us.
But I also think there are clues.
The things that give you goosebumps.
The things you get so excited about you can't stop talking about them.
The moments when you lose track of time.
The people who make you feel completely present.
Those little nudges when something inside you says, Yes. This. More of this.
What if we paid more attention to those?
Because I don't want to spend my life simply going through the motions—working, earning, buying, accomplishing and repeating.
I want to actually live it.
To enjoy the people I love while they're here.
To follow the things that light me up.
To create a life that feels like mine.
And apparently, sometimes, to order the pancake that's the size of a hubcap. 🥞❤️
