Life will bring waves. Emotions will rise. Change will crash. But there’s always a current of calm. And we forget that at our own expense.

In a world that never stops talking, silence can feel threatening. But over the years I’ve learned—It isn’t the absence of something. It’s the presence of everything.

I recently returned from two weeks in Japan—first in Nozawa Onsen, a small farming and ski village where the way of life is simple, deeply connected, and slow—before exploring the rich culture in Kyoto and Tokyo. There’s a Japanese phrase that echoed through every part of my trip: Ichigo Ichie. "One moment, one time. Never again."

"Every night, I choose to die…I let my ego, my known 'self' die, and I wake up each day, ready to be reborn."

Are you truly living, or just going through the motions? Too often, we wait for "big moments" to wake us up—yet life’s magic is in the present.