I want to share two stories with you today. One from my mentor, Dan Miller, and one from my friend Freya Casey.

Both have confirmed the way I see life, faith, and even death itself.

Dan was told in December of 2023 that he had advanced pancreatic cancer. No treatment. No cure. Six months to live at most.

His very first words to me after receiving that diagnosis?

“So I have this gift…”

He wrote about the conversations he was having with his wife Joanne, their kids, and grandkids. About celebrating now rather than later. About reflecting on legacy, gratitude, and even anticipating “an incredible spiritual transformation” with excitement.

He wasn’t bitter. He wasn’t fearful. He wasn’t even anxious.

He was fully alive.

That message, and the peace behind it, lined up with what I already knew to be true at a deeper level… that real faith isn’t proven by what we say we believe, but by the peace and presence we carry when life gives us every reason to fall apart.

For much of my life, I met many people, and at times, I was one of them, who claimed faith in God yet carried fear, anxiety, and worry about the smallest things. But by the time I received Dan’s text, that was no longer my reality.

Dan embodied what I’ve come to know as true. He had encountered something far deeper than doctrine or dogma. He knew what it meant to live in alignment with love itself, to experience the presence of God as a living reality rather than a religious concept.

And then there’s Freya.

Freya has been a client and friend for over a decade. She’s a single mother of three, pregnant with her fourth, a business owner, a creator and recently diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer while pregnant.

Yet when she reached out to me, she wasn’t falling apart.

She was calm. Peaceful. Clear.

Not because she knew the outcome.

But because she wasn’t resisting reality.

She was fully present, creating her reality moment by moment, choosing to trust rather than fear, to open rather than control, to soften rather than fight.

Freya and I have been having many private conversations over the past few months about what she’s been walking through. One day, she decided to join me on one of my open live streams.

She felt her story might encourage someone else who needed to hear it. What unfolded became yet another living example of what it looks like to trust the journey in the midst of life’s greatest trials.

If you want to hear her story in her own voice, and feel the peace that carries through every word, listen to this episode.

My hope is that what you hear will do more than inspire you.

I hope it awakens something within you. A quiet knowing that peace really is possible, even in the middle of life’s greatest storms.

With gratitude,

Cliff

An Invitation: If what you hear in this episode resonates with you and you’d like to go deeper, I want to personally invite you to join us at the Free The Dream Workshop. This two-day experience is designed to help you clear the noise, uncover what’s next, and remember the part of you that’s still waiting to be lived.

The next session is happening August 29–30, right here in my hometown, and for this limited time, it’s a pay-what-you-want event. That means you can even attend for free if that’s what works for you right now. (Note: The next session will be hosted in October 2025. Dates have now been confirmed!!!!   The dates are Friday and Saturday, October 17th and 18th)

You can learn more and reserve your spot at FreeTheDreamWorkshop.com