Being

29 posts on being.

Articles on being from Being HumanKind by Justin Ahrens.

• It Still Gets to Be a Big Deal Someone else having it worse does not make what you are carrying less real. On comparative suffering, self-compassion, and Scott Spiezio picking up sticks in his yard.
• Being Heard When we try to carry worry entirely inside our own heads, it grows. A reflection on how naming what troubles us — with someone we trust — makes it more manageable, and why sharing the weight is one of the most human things we can do.
• Being in the Question Some questions are not problems to solve. They are sacred quandaries — places where we learn how to become.
• What We Think Success Looks Like I started a personal project to reconnect with something I have loved since childhood. I did not expect it to open a door to something that had been right in front of me all along: the people, stories, and connections that make life more meaningful.
• Maybe It's Now? What if the good old days aren't behind you, but unfolding in the wonderfully ordinary moments of today?
• You Are Allowed to Change: Freedom to Grow Freedom, becoming, and the courage to evolve — why changing your mind isn't a betrayal of who you were, but the truest kind of growth.
• The Traditions That Shape Us A birthday dinner, a family tradition of going around the table, and a reminder that the greatest gift we can give isn't another present—it's helping people feel seen.
• Don't Wait to Say It A goodbye text from a dying friend, a national park, and a podcast about ice cream reminded me of one thing: don't wait to tell someone they mattered.
• What We Inherit: The Gift of Presence The greatest gift we can give each other isn't something we buy—it's showing up fully present.
• Hope in the Tension: The Stockdale Paradox The Stockdale Paradox taught me resilience doesn't live at either extreme. It lives in the middle, in the tension between what's real and what's still possible. You don't have to choose between honesty and hope. You can hold both.
• Being Ready for the Next Shot One tree. One perfect drive ruined. A reflection on recovery, grace, and finding the courage to swing again after life sends you ricocheting backward.
• Being Renewed Some things can't bloom in a hurry. A reflection on slowing down, looking up, and letting spring renew what winter quieted.
• The Best Human They'd Ever Met Aaron Rai won the PGA Championship, but the thing everyone kept saying about him wasn't about golf. It was about who he is. A reflection on the reputation we're actually building.
• Being Misunderstood… and Choosing to Keep Walking When effort doesn't match perception and intention gets lost in translation — a reflection on the quiet weight of leadership and learning what's actually yours to carry.
• What If Nothing Needs to Change… Except How You See It? A quote from a film festival reframes everything: maybe the breakthrough isn't a new strategy or a new direction — maybe it's new eyes for what's already in front of you.
• Finding the Gift What if the setbacks you're stuck on are actually shaping something you can't see yet? A story about staying open long enough to find the gift hidden inside the hard moments.
• Being Made New Why Spring Might Be the Best Time to Begin Again. What if the best time to begin again isn't January 1… but right now?
• In the In-Between To feel the full depth of grief or love, you have to have them both. Grief is not the opposite of love — it is love with nowhere to land.
• Being a Neighbor? Or maybe the better question is: how are we seeing our neighbors, and what kind of neighbor are we becoming?
• Building Space for Wonder (Yes, Literally) Why curiosity isn't something you stumble into — it's something you intentionally build into your life.
• When the Magic Fades and What Comes After Sometimes the most human thing we can do isn't start over — it's stay.
• You're Not Starting Empty Before you add anything new to your life, there's a quieter truth worth noticing: you are already carrying more than you think.
• Just Because Why do we only come together at the big moments? What if we made gathering a habit — not out of obligation, but out of love?
• Sometimes the Greatest Gifts Aren't Wrapped They're the moments that hold us still. A Sunday morning reflection on ornaments, memories, and what really matters.
• Rest Isn't Easy For Me. Maybe It Isn't For You Either. Even when my body gave me no choice but to rest, actually resting was still hard. And that delay showed me something.
• Can We Ever Be Too Thankful? Sitting in post-Thanksgiving stillness, hip throbbing and heart strangely full, the answer was clear.
• An Alive Day: You Are Still Here Maybe today is your Alive Day. Not because something dramatic happened, but because you chose to notice that you are breathing.
• Seasons of Being: Why Change Feels Hard The seasons are changing, and so are we. Nature never fights its transitions — but we humans tend to resist change.
• Everything is Attention Why presence is the last human medium. If everything is becoming television, then maybe the last truly human act is to look up, notice, and be here.

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