Perennial Pen (What Matters Most): A Silver Maple Strategies Podcast with Nate Birt

Scott sang to his daughter Sophia before she was even born. One of his favorite songs was Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind." In the anxious moments after Sophia's birth, when her mother needed medical attention, Scott took his crying newborn into his arms and began singing that familiar tune. Within a few notes, she stopped crying and looked up at him.

For Scott, it was an extraordinary moment of connection and a sudden realization of the enormous responsibility—and joy—of being a father.

In this episode, I reunite with Scott, my high school newspaper teacher and one of the most influential mentors in my life. We explore a remarkable family story that begins with heartbreak and uncertainty, develops into an unconventional international parenting arrangement, and ultimately reveals what's possible when people refuse to let their differences stand in the way of loving a child.

When Scott and Kathy separated while Sophia was still a toddler, they made a commitment to remain equally involved in their daughter's life. They continued attending therapy together to strengthen their relationship as co-parents, spoke positively about one another, and worked to preserve the stability and love Sophia had always known.

But through an unexpected turn of events, Kathy fell in love with Davy, a longtime friend who lived in Vancouver, British Columbia. His family business kept him firmly rooted in Canada. Kathy wanted to build a life with him, but Scott couldn't imagine being separated from Sophia for weeks or months at a time.

The solution was extraordinary, and you'll hear Scott's remarkable family story beginning with this episode.

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation about fatherhood, family, sacrifice, accepting help, adapting to the unexpected, and discovering that love sometimes asks us to rewrite our plans.

Stay tuned for Part 2, when Scott takes us through Sophia's later school years, her graduation and adulthood, and the twists and turns that continued to shape their family and the extraordinary relationship they share today.

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

• How Scott and Kathy approached their separation and how they continued to support Sophia

• The unexpected international adventure that unfolded when Kathy fell in love with Davy, who lived in Vancouver, Canada

• The family's unusual two-week travel arrangement that allowed Sophia to spend substantial time with both parents

• Why Scott eventually chose to leave a teaching career he loved and pursue freelance journalism to preserve his relationship with his daughter

• The generosity, trust, pride, and questions of personal identity involved in accepting financial and logistical support from others

What's one worry or fear that you could give yourself permission to set aside for the next 24 hours?

• Connect with Scott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-boulbol-6a1b976/
• Read Scott's outdoors and endurance sports journalism on Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/scott-boulbol-1

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on the Perennial Pen podcast, email me at [email protected].

And if you're enjoying these conversations, please consider rating the show and leaving a review so more people can discover the wisdom and stories our guests have to share.

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement:

https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book

Some family stories survive because one person finally thinks to ask the right questions. That's what happened to Lisa from Florida, our very special guest on this episode.

Lisa's story-preservation process started with a beloved family cookie: thin, crispy chocolate spice cookies made each year by Hansi, a relative whose life had been shaped by the Holocaust and subsequent immigration to Venezuela.

Lisa loved those cookies as a child. Years later, when Hansi was elderly, Lisa asked how she made them. She came away with Hansi's distinctive cookie cutter and a handwritten recipe — in German, difficult to decipher, and still nearly impossible for Lisa's family to recreate exactly.

What she didn't get were all the little details that never made it onto the page.

That almost-lost recipe opens a much bigger conversation in this episode about what we inherit, what we preserve, and what it means to belong when your family story crosses countries, cultures, religions, and generations.

Lisa shares why she now believes we have to ask questions while we still can. She describes a beautiful tradition she created for her daughter's quinceañera, asking family members to write down treasured recipes along with the little instructions, memories, and context that make them more than just ingredients on a page.

We also talk about Lisa's own evolving understanding of belonging. Growing up in Venezuela with an American mother and a Venezuelan-born father whose parents were Holocaust survivors, Lisa once experienced her family's many cultural influences as evidence that she didn't entirely fit anywhere. Over time, she began to see those features of her life differently: not as competing identities, but as a rich collection of experiences that allowed her to belong in more places than she realized.

That insight continues to inform Lisa's work with young people as a nonprofit CEO and, especially, as a parent.

We talk about the difference between fitting in and belonging, the extraordinary pressure young people can feel to be exceptional while simultaneously trying not to stand out too much, and why teenagers need their parents' steady presence even when every outward signal seems to say otherwise.

Lisa also offers a powerful practice that can benefit all of our lives, whether or not you have children:: listen with an open heart. That means giving another person our presence before our advice and our curiosity before our judgment.

In this episode, we explore:

• How a beloved family cookie recipe was nearly lost — and what Lisa wishes she had asked while there was still time

• How recipes can preserve far more than ingredients, including family history, migration, memory and identity

• How Lisa helped her daughter begin collecting family stories through handwritten recipes

• Why multicultural family histories can create both questions of belonging and an extraordinarily rich sense of identity

• The important difference between fitting in and truly belonging

• Why young people need adults who are curious about their experiences rather than quick to judge or fix them

• How parents can remain a dependable "base" for teenagers as they explore greater independence

• Why listening with an open heart may be one of the greatest gifts we can give another person

• How our quirks, differences, and perceived imperfections might be some of the very things worth preserving

• Why honoring where we came from can help us honor the people and generations coming after us

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

Reflection Question

Who is one person you care about whom you could listen to more intentionally — without fixing, correcting, or preparing your response — and what might you discover if you simply gave them your full attention?

• Learn more about Code/Art, the nonprofit Lisa Hauser leads as CEO

• Connect with Lisa Hauser on LinkedIn

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on Perennial Pen, email me at [email protected]. I reply to every message personally!

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement: https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book

Debbie from Scotland spent more than 24 years in social work, built a family, moved countries and made some enormous life decisions along the way. Yet some of the most important changes in her life began with a question many of us rarely consider asking: Which option is going to bring me the biggest joy?

For Debbie, choosing joy doesn't mean pretending difficult things aren't happening or expecting ourselves to feel happy all the time. It means learning to listen to ourselves, recognize what we truly want, and trust that we can handle what happens once we've made up our minds.

This approach to life has helped Debbie navigate everything from relationships and motherhood to leaving a longtime career and building her own business.

In this episode, I talk with Debbie about the difference between happiness and joy, why certainty can be so attractive when we're afraid of the unknown, and how we can strengthen our trust in ourselves through surprisingly small everyday choices.

Debbie shares how years of caring for other people eventually left her struggling to answer a basic question from her own life coach: What do you actually want? Relearning how to answer that question became part of a much larger journey toward understanding her own worth, setting boundaries, and giving herself permission to pursue a fulfilling life.

We also talk about why other people's advice — even when it comes from people who genuinely love us — is inevitably filtered through their own experiences. Debbie explains why she now tries to establish her own opinion first, then invites outside perspectives without automatically surrendering her point of view.

Debbie reminds us that we can all experience simple joy without a lot of extra effort: noticing the warmth of a cup of tea, smiling at somebody we pass, picking up a piece of trash, or simply asking ourselves what we genuinely want in this particular moment.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why Debbie distinguishes between externally driven happiness and an internal sense of joy

• How fear of uncertainty prevents us from trusting ourselves

• Why many women become disconnected from their own wants while caring for families, careers and everyone around them

• How tiny choices — even coffee versus tea or sweet versus savory — can help us practice listening to ourselves

• Why Debbie establishes her own opinion before asking other people for theirs

• How joy can change across different seasons and chapters of life

• Why being allowed to change direction can free us from choices that no longer fit

• How presence, rest, and ordinary moments can become meaningful sources of joy

• Why choosing yourself sometimes requires setting boundaries with the people you love

• How Debbie's forthcoming book, The Joy Frequency, invites women to explore self-worth, intuition, boundaries, energy and joy without turning personal growth into another checklist

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

Reflection Question

What's one decision you know you want to make, yet you're hesitating to make it? What might happen if you trusted yourself enough to take the next step?

• Learn more about Debbie Lucas and her work as The Joy Alchemist on her website

• Connect with Debbie Lucas on LinkedIn

• Grab a copy of Debbie's book, The Joy Frequency, scheduled to be released Oct. 29, 2026

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on Perennial Pen, email me at [email protected]. I reply to every message personally!

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement: https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book

David from Missouri has spent much of his life learning that seemingly ordinary experiences can lead us to moments of clarity and purpose years later. For him, that's meant turning lessons from childhood into practical acts of neighborliness. As a neighboring advocate, author, and teacher, David's leadership has sparked a nationwide movement committed to helping people strengthen local connections, foster regular acts of neighborliness, and combat pervasive isolation and loneliness.

Those early lessons often stemmed from David's entrepreneurial spirit cultivated while working closely with his grandfather - a man with an eighth-grade education whom David remembers as one of the smartest people he's ever known. David launched an unsuccessful earthworm business at age 10 and went on to plant a pumpkin patch, pick rocks, haul hay, and mow neighbors' lawns, among other ventures.

In this episode, I talk with David about how those early experiences helped form his understanding of hard work, faith, community, and what it means to truly know the people who live around us.

David shares how his grandfather taught him less through lectures than by inviting him to work alongside him. Those hours together gave David something more valuable than a work ethic: stories about the Great Depression, a one-room schoolhouse, family sacrifice, education, and why certain things in life are worth working toward.

We also talk about a consequential season when David left law school after his father's death and spent a summer praying and wrestling with what direction his life should take. His Christian faith became central to that decision-making process. The path he ultimately chose led him to pursue journalism, introduced him to the woman who would become his wife, and eventually led him to forge a career building local communities and human connection.

David explains how a meaningful life is built through small acts repeated faithfully with the people right in front of us.

In this episode, we explore:

• What David's failed earthworm business taught him about preparation, persistence, and trying again
• The lessons his grandfather passed down while they picked rocks, hauled hay, and raised cattle
• How stories from the Great Depression and a one-room school shaped David's understanding of life and purpose
• The role David's Christian faith and prayer played in a major turning point after his father's death
• How leaving law school for a small-town newspaper changed the course of David's life
• Why knowing our neighbors' names is such a powerful first step toward finding belonging
• The difference between being a harmless neighbor and becoming an engaged one
• How loneliness and intentional isolation can weaken the relationships closest to us
• Why our individual gifts — whether baking cookies, writing notes, hosting dinner, or playing ping-pong — can become tools for connection
• How a simple effort to celebrate good neighbors grew into Missouri Good Neighbor Week
• Why stronger communities can begin with small acts of kindness close to home
• David's reminder that "neighboring's a crock pot, not a microwave"

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

Reflection Question

Who is one person living near you whose name, story, or needs you don't yet know — and what is one small, sincere step you could take this week to get to know that person better?

• Learn more about David Burton and his work with University of Missouri Extension: https://extension.missouri.edu/people/david-burton
• Grab a copy of David's book, "The Neighboring Playbook: Becoming America's Most Neighborly State"
• Connect with David Burton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-burton-5041728/
• Learn more about Missouri Good Neighbor Week: https://missourigoodneighborweek.com/

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on Perennial Pen, email me at [email protected]. I reply to every message personally!

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement: https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book

Ed from Georgia has spent much of his life helping people solve business problems, navigate uncertainty, and move forward with greater clarity. But in this episode, he shares something more personal: how his journey of getting to know himself more honestly, especially in midlife, helped him build stronger relationships with the people he loves most.

In this episode, I talk with Ed about what it means to "know thyself" in a way that is practical, humble, and deeply human. I really appreciate Ed's honesty about his own wiring, his inner critic (we all have one, and that's a good thing!), and the stories he's learned to question rather than simply accept as true.

Ed shares how tools such as the Enneagram and Kolbe helped him better understand how he naturally sees the world, takes action, and relates to others. He also reflects on the gift of midlife, the importance of curiosity, the challenge of staying open to change, and why human connection might become even more valuable in an age shaped by artificial intelligence.

His story is a great reminder that self-discovery allows us to see ourselves more clearly. And when we understand how we're wired, we can listen better, enjoy deeper relationships, and make more thoughtful choices about life.

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

In this episode, we explore:

• Ed's reflections on beginning a deeper journey of self-discovery in midlife
• How the Enneagram helped him understand his wiring, motivations, and relationships
• Why knowing yourself can make you more empathetic toward the people closest to you
• What it means to notice the stories we tell ourselves — and decide whether they need rewriting
• How to change your relationship with your inner critic instead of trying to silence it
• The value of curiosity, listening, and being willing to be persuaded
• How midlife can become a meaningful season of reflection rather than regret
• Ed's thoughts on optimism, resilience, and learning to bet on yourself
• Why human connection might become even more important in the age of artificial intelligence

Reflection Question

What's one story you've been telling yourself about who you are, what you can do, or what your life is supposed to look like? What might change if you began to rewrite that story this week?

• Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edgandia/
• Learn more about Ed and B2B Launcher: https://b2blauncher.com/
• Listen to Ed's podcast: https://b2blauncher.com/category/podcast/

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on Perennial Pen, email me at [email protected]. I reply to every message personally!

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement: https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book

Ryan from Illinois has spent much of his life moving between newsrooms, mountain towns, rural communities, nonprofit work, and the world of regenerative agriculture. But in this episode, he shares something even more personal: the lessons he would offer his younger self about discomfort, trade-offs, community, empathy, and learning to make peace with the life you're actually building (rather than all the speculative futures you daydream about but might never actually experience).

In this episode, I talk with Ryan about what it means to keep growing as a human being without demanding perfection from ourselves. I really appreciate Ryan's honesty about the choices we all make: the doors we walk through, the ones walk past, and the wisdom that comes from finally giving ourselves permission to accept the path we've chosen.

Ryan shares how his parents helped him learn the value of being uncomfortable, how working in journalism shaped both his empathy and his sense of detachment, and why cause-driven work can be both meaningful and heartbreaking. He also reflects on the communities that formed him — from Aspen and Lake Tahoe to Chicago and rural America — and what it takes not only to live somewhere, but to truly belong.

His story is a reminder that life is full of trade-offs, but those trade-offs don't have to become regrets. We can learn from our younger selves, offer kindness to the people we used to be, and share what we've learned with someone who needs encouragement for the road ahead.

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

In this episode, we explore:

• Ryan's reflections on what he would tell his younger self
• How being uncomfortable helps us grow, change, and keep moving
• The importance of surrounding ourselves with good people when life feels difficult
• What cause-driven work can teach us about heartbreak, humility, and persistence
• Ryan's reflections on journalism, empathy, listening, and learning when people need help or simply need to be heard
• The trade-offs that come with choosing one life path over another
• What Ryan learned from living in mountain towns, rural communities, and cities
• Why strong communities require ownership, contribution, fun, and belief in one another
• How reconnecting with nature can help us loosen our grip on control

Reflection Question

What's one lesson you'd want to give to your younger self? And who in your life might need to hear that lesson this week?

• Connect with Ryan Slabaugh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanslabaugh/
• Learn more about Think Regeneration: https://thinkregeneration.com/

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on Perennial Pen, email Nate at [email protected].

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement: https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book

Natalie from England has spent more than 30 years helping people share their stories. But in this episode, she shares some of her own: stories of caring for her father through Alzheimer's, supporting her stepmother through motor neurone disease, walking through years of uncertainty with her son's health, and slowly rebuilding her life after seasons that left her exhausted.

In this episode, I talk with Natalie about what happens when life forces us to stop, reassess, and ask what we're really building. What struck me most is Natalie's honesty about ambition, burnout, grief, caregiving, and our deepy human desire to prove ourselves even when, as she says so beautifully, "being you is enough."

Natalie shares how a difficult four-year season led her to a surprising trip to Los Angeles, a vision board, a Porsche named Dolly, and a deeper understanding that manifesting a dream requires showing up, taking the next step, and paying attention to what actually brings you joy. Her story is a reminder that we can live out our lives each day on purpose -- rather than constantly chasing an elusive purpose that never arrives.

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

In this episode, we explore:

• Natalie's reflections on caring for her father during Alzheimer's

• The emotional weight of caregiving, responsibility, and making difficult decisions as a family

• Supporting a child through years of medical uncertainty

• How personal hardship led Natalie to build a Facebook group and write a book to help other families and make sure they never feel that they're alone

• The difference between ambition, burnout, and meaningful purpose

• Why manifestation is less about wishing and more about daily action

• The question Natalie asks clients: "When someone says your name, what do they think?"

• How joy, gratitude, legacy, and enoughness can reshape the way we live

Reflection Question When people say your name, what do you hope they think? And: How can you live that reality more fully this week?

• Connect with Natalie Trice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-trice/

• Learn more about Natalie's work: https://natalietricepublicity.co.uk/

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on Perennial Pen, email Nate at [email protected].

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement: https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book

Alba's life has taken her across countries, cultures, and seasons of deep personal reinvention. After immigrating to the United States from Russia and building a life in San Francisco, she found herself during the COVID pandemic asking a difficult question: What am I doing here, and what actually makes me happy?

In this episode, I talk with Alba about what happened when she chose to let go of the apartment, the car, the extra belongings, and the fear that had kept her in one place. What began with short trips to Mexico, Costa Rica, and Ecuador eventually became a life of exploration across dozens of countries, where Alba discovered not only new landscapes and communities, but a deeper trust in herself.

What struck me most is how Alba describes happiness not as something someone else gives us, but as something we learn to recognize, cultivate, and protect. Her story is about travel, that's true. But even more than that, it's about the power of courage, solitude, self-knowledge, and learning what we truly want from life.

Alba reminds us that fear can keep us small, but it can also become a doorway to an amazing life.

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

In this episode, we explore:

• Alba's experience immigrating to the U.S. and rebuilding her life from scratch
• Why the pandemic became a turning point in how she thought about home, work, and happiness
• How travel helped her move beyond fear and discover a different way of living
• The difference between distraction and true self-understanding
• What solitude, journaling, and quiet can teach us about what we really want
• Why relationships become healthier when we first learn how to be whole within ourselves
• Alba's reminder that courage often begins by taking one honest step into the unknown

Reflection Question

What is one fear that might be keeping you from taking a meaningful next step in your life?

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on Perennial Pen, email me at [email protected]. I reply to every message personally!

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement: https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book

Some stories begin with a grand plan. Others begin with a pair of old running shoes pulled from the back of a closet.

In the second half of my conversation with Jim from Missouri, we move from the rural communities he has spent decades writing about to the deeply personal ways he has learned to keep moving through uncertainty, heartache, pain, and possibility.

If you haven't yet heard Part 1, I hope you'll go back and listen. There, Jim shares the lessons he inherited from his father, the broken cars and motorcycles that taught him how to learn by doing, the crossroads where he chose college over the comfort of a familiar job, and the family tradition of reading books around the dinner table. Those stories lay the foundation for this conversation: a life shaped by curiosity, hard work, self-reliance, and the belief that ordinary people are capable of far more than they imagine.

In Part 2, Jim reflects on more than four decades of telling the stories of rural Missouri. He remembers a Chicago engineer who left the rat race, taught himself to make boots, and built a life where his children mattered more than the pressure of a waiting customer. Years later, when a reader arrived after saving for a decade to buy a pair, the bootmaker honored the original price—even though his work had become far more valuable.

Jim also takes us inside places few people ever see: a nighttime fish-gigging tradition on a Missouri river, a pristine cave sparkling like it had been covered in diamonds, and rural businesses whose futures changed because someone took the time to tell their stories.

Jim believes storytelling can help people succeed. It can introduce a craftsperson to a wider community, help a business recover after disaster, and preserve traditions that might otherwise disappear.

That spirit of service extends far beyond Missouri. Jim shares what it was like to travel with electric cooperative crews to communities in Bolivia, Guatemala, and Jamaica that had never experienced electricity. He remembers the moment people flipped a switch and watched a light come on for the first time—and how their faces seemed to brighten with it.

Then Jim turns toward one of the most personal chapters of his life. During a season of profound heartache, he found an old pair of high school running shoes and began climbing a hill near his home. On the first day, he couldn't make it far. The next day, he went 10 feet farther. Then another 10 feet. Eventually, those small steps carried him through 5Ks, marathons, trail races, and a 50-mile run.

Along the way, running became more than exercise. Jim began turning long races into prayers, dedicating each mile to someone carrying a burden of their own. By focusing on the struggles of others, he found perspective, gratitude, and a way to turn his own pain into something generous.

This episode is a reminder that progress doesn't always look dramatic. Sometimes, it's simply replacing "I could never" with a more hopeful question: What adventures might I have along the way?

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

• How Jim's four decades in journalism introduced him to people whose stories needed to be told
• A self-taught Missouri bootmaker who chose family, craftsmanship, and generosity over the rat race
• Why storytelling can help rural businesses survive, recover, and grow
• The quiet coordination and shared tradition of fish gigging on a Missouri river
• Jim's journey into a pristine cave that few people would ever see
• The ingenuity, hard work, and community spirit Jim has witnessed across rural America
• Bringing electricity to communities in Bolivia, Guatemala, and Jamaica
• What people living with very little taught Jim about happiness, gratitude, and what truly matters
• The can-do spirit of electric cooperative linemen responding to impossible terrain and natural disasters
• How an old pair of running shoes helped Jim begin moving through a season of heartache
• The power of going just 10 feet farther than the day before
• Turning marathons and long-distance runs into prayers for other people
• Why the words "I could never" deserve to be challenged
• What a Vietnam veteran and endurance cyclist taught Jim about adventure, healing, and possibility
• How "relentless forward progress" can help us continue through failure, uncertainty, and change

Where in your life have you been telling yourself, "I could never ... " -- and what would it look like to take one small, intentional step forward today to say, "Actually, I could ... ."

Jim McCarty is Editor Emeritus and Special Projects Manager for Rural Missouri. Across more than four decades, he has helped preserve and share the stories, skills, traditions, businesses, and people that give rural communities their character.

Meet the Rural Missouri staff: https://ruralmissouri.org/staff/

Learn more about Jim McCarty through the Missouri School of Journalism: https://journalism.missouri.edu/alum/jim-mccarty/

Explore the history of Rural Missouri: https://ruralmissouri.org/history/

Before listening to Part 2—or after you finish—I encourage you to return to the first half of my conversation with Jim. In Part 1, he shares what his father taught him about self-reliance, hard work, repairing what is broken, taking the riskier road, and leaving a place better than he found it.

Listen to Part 1: https://sites.libsyn.com/615900/13-mere-mortals-have-done-some-amazing-things-part-1-of-2

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on Perennial Pen, email Nate at [email protected].

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement: https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book

A bright yellow car with black racing stripes arrived in Jim's yard on a chain. It didn't run, its engine had once caught fire, and its rusted hood revealed its well-worn condition. Then Jim's father offered him a simple challenge: "If you can get it running, it's yours."

In this episode, I talk with Jim from Missouri about the lessons hidden inside of broken cars, the value of hard work, how to face uncertain crossroads in life, incredible family stories, and the importance of being willing to learn by doing. Jim grew up watching his father—a Great Depression survivor, World War II veteran, mechanic, carpenter, teacher, and tireless problem-solver—bring worn-out machines back to life with patience, ingenuity, and whatever parts he could find.

Along the way, Jim reveals what these memories have to teach us about personal growth and becoming the people we were meant to be. Broken engines can be studied and repaired. Difficult skills can be learned and mastered. Places can be left better than we found them. Even parts of ourselves that feel stuck or unfinished can grow and mature with a little persistence, humility, and mentorship. That's true even when a few wrenches are thrown our way.

Jim also recalls the time he faced a literal crossroads and had to choose between returning to a motorcycle shop he loved or turning toward college and an uncertain future. His decision led him into journalism, where his curiosity has allowed him to step inside the worlds of many different people, including tobacco farmers, blacksmiths, and other rural Missourians.

Books also factored heavily in Jim's upbringing, and they continue to shape how he sees the world. Jim relays his remarkable family reading tradition: books at the dinner table, books beside the kitchen sink, and enough concentration to read and carry on a conversation at the same time.

This is the first half of a two-part conversation about self-reliance, curiosity, work, risk, storytelling, and the lasting wisdom we inherit from the generations who came before us.

Sincere thanks to Lee Williams for his fantastic production of this and every episode of Perennial Pen.

• The broken 1969 Opel Rallye that became Jim's first car and an education in perseverance
• Lessons Jim inherited from his father's Great Depression childhood and World War II service
• Why believing that something can be understood is often the first step toward repairing it
• The importance of leaving a place better than when you found it
• How scarcity can inspire creativity, resourcefulness, and self-reliance
• Jim's work building and test-riding motorcycles as an 18-year-old
• The crossroads where Jim chose college over the comfort of a familiar job
• Why Jim believes taking the riskier path can open the door to growth
• The lasting physical and mental value of hard work
• How hands-on journalism allowed Jim to enter the worlds of farmers, craftspeople, and rural communities
• The influence of Jim's mother, family gatherings, Irish roots, and a home filled with books
• How Jim's family learned to read during meals—and still carry on a conversation

What's one uncertain yet meaningful step you could take this week that might help you grow beyond your comfort zone?

Jim McCarty is Editor Emeritus and Special Projects Manager for Rural Missouri, where he has spent his career sharing the people, traditions, history, and everyday life of rural communities.

Meet the Rural Missouri staff: https://ruralmissouri.org/staff/

Learn more about Jim McCarty in this Missouri School of Journalism Q-and-A article: https://journalism.missouri.edu/alum/jim-mccarty/

Explore the history of Rural Missouri: https://ruralmissouri.org/history/

If you or someone you know has a meaningful, life-affirming story to share on the Perennial Pen podcast, email Nate at [email protected].

Would you like help preserving your loved one's amazing life stories? Is your business or nonprofit looking for a way to celebrate an important anniversary or milestone? My wife, Julie, and I can help you do that.

Learn more about our 90-day Perennial Pen engagement: https://www.silvermaplestrategies.com/perennial-pen-family-legacy-book