Patio Pondering: A Year of Showing Up

This morning dawned with steam rolling off the pond, the air sharp after one of the coldest nights of the season. I brewed my coffee stronger than usual to chase off the cobwebs and sat down to take it in.

Today is a special day: one year ago, Patio Pondering was born. At first, it was nothing more than a therapist’s nudge to help me recover from the loss of my swine nutritionist job of 12 years. I simply wanted something to stir my brain each morning. For years, I carried unspoken reflections, boxed in as “just the swine nutritionist,” but once I gave myself permission to write, those thoughts took flight. What began as therapy has since become a blog, a podcast, and new opportunities I never imagined.

Over the past year, I’ve written 234 reflections. I’ve touched on leadership, both the kind that inspires and the kind that wounds. I’ve written about the realities of job searching in 2025, and the everyday ways agriculture shapes our lives. I’ve shared about my sobriety journey, the quiet lessons of resilience, and how leadership isn’t tied to a title. And I’ve written on many other topics too, often with no idea what that day’s reflection would be until I poured my coffee and walked out to the patio. That simple ritual reminded me that inspiration doesn’t always arrive with a plan, but it always shows up if you give it space.

My process has shifted too. At first, I was just getting words on a page. Now, I watch for sparks in daily life and shape them into reflections with the help of AI tools. Along the way, I’ve built not just a rhythm of writing, but a blog, a podcast, and even a speaking platform. My Patio Ponderings have also found their way into the pages of our local newspaper, connecting me with neighbors in a whole new way.

But the biggest surprise is how this practice has worked inward as much as outward. Even when I write about themes that outwardly apply to the broader world, I often find myself reflecting on how those same themes apply to me. Those moments of turning inward have been just as valuable as sharing outwardly, slowly reshaping how I see myself and what I might offer. My reflections over the past year opened my eyes to the possibility of putting out my own shingle as a consultant, speaker, and writer for the swine industry, and for agriculture more broadly. What started as therapy has grown into clarity about the paths still ahead of me.

Two things, though, haven’t changed: every piece is grounded in my own perspective, and every one is paired with a photo from our backyard. Watching the seasons change in those images has been a reminder that growth often comes quietly, one day at a time.

This morning, as I watched the steam roll off the pond in the chill of early September, I was reminded that change and continuity live side by side. One year of Patio Ponderings is behind me, and I don’t know exactly where the next year will lead. What I do know is that showing up with words each day has already carried me further than I ever expected.

Here’s to another year of reflection, conversation, and discovery—wherever the path may lead.