Walking Anyway: Living with uncertainty, navigating life transitions, and finding faith when life doesn't go as planned

If someone had asked me six months ago what would be holding me this summer, I don't think I would have guessed any of these. And yet, here they are.

In this seasonal episode, I'm reflecting on the ordinary things, unexpected companions, and quiet rhythms that have been carrying me through this season. Not the things I thought I needed, but the things that have actually been helping.

A conversation about steadiness, paying attention, and discovering what is sustaining us in the middle of ordinary life.

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Order Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily 
• Get the monthly letter

Episode Website

Have you ever found yourself afraid to get your hopes up? Keeping your expectations low, preparing for disappointment, or waiting for something to go wrong?

This week we're reflecting on the fear that often hides beneath self-protection—and the surprising ways God meets us when we've become afraid to hope again.

In this episode, we'll explore:

• Why fear sometimes looks like caution rather than panic
• The difference between wisdom and self-protection
• What disappointment teaches us to do with hope
• The question hiding beneath "Let's wait and see
• Why the things we protect most carefully often matter most
• What God may be revealing through our longing

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Get the monthly letter
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Order my book  Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily
• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table

Episode Website 

Sometimes a season feels so ordinary that it's hard to tell whether anything important is happening at all.

If you've been moving through quiet days that look much like the ones before them, you may know the feeling.

In this episode, I talk about why some seasons are harder to measure than others—and why that doesn't mean nothing is happening.

In this episode:

• why ordinary seasons can feel surprisingly unsettling.
•  the pressure to make a season count.
•  a question that has been changing how I see this summer.

If this is where you find yourself right now, this episode might help you see your season differently.

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Order Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily
• Get the monthly letter

Episode Website

Summer is supposed to feel lighter. So why are you still tired?

If life looks good on the outside, but something still feels a little off, this might feel familiar. In this episode, I talk about the kind of weariness that can linger even in good seasons, and what I've been noticing about it lately.

Here on Walking Anyway, we practice staying with our lives as they are instead of rushing toward how we think they should be.

In this episode:

– why beautiful seasons can still feel demanding
 – what we often assume tiredness means
 – what we miss when we stop paying attention to what a season has required of us

If this is where you are right now, this episode might help you stop treating your tiredness like a problem to solve.

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• There’s A Name For the Blah You’re Feeling - New York Times article by Adam Grant 
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Order Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily
• Get the monthly letter

Episode Website

What do you do when you realize you cannot fix what’s happening?

If you’ve been trying to hold everything together, carrying situations that remain unresolved, or lying awake thinking about people you love and cannot rescue, this episode might feel familiar.

In this episode of Walking Anyway, I talk about helplessness, loss of control, and the grief of realizing that love doesn’t always grant us power. We explore what it means to stay present in seasons where life feels uncertain, prayer feels unfinished, and no amount of effort can force resolution.

In this episode:

• why thoughtful people often try to emotionally carry outcomes they cannot control
• the difference between caring and carrying
• what Jesus in Gethsemane shows us about helplessness, presence, and faith

Not everything unresolved is asking you to fix it.

If this is where you are right now, I hope this episode helps you loosen your grip a little on what was never yours to carry alone.

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Get the monthly letter
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table
• Order Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily

Episode Website

What do you do when your life looks different than the version you once imagined for yourself?

If you’ve been feeling disappointed, disoriented, quietly lonely, or wondering why adulthood an especially midlife, feels harder or more ordinary than you expected, this episode might feel familiar.

In this episode, I talk about returning to Romania after almost twenty-five years away — and the strange realization that going back is not the same thing as recovering what was lost. We explore disappointment, changing relationships, midlife expectations, and what it means to stay tender inside a life that hasn’t unfolded the way you thought it would.

In this episode:
 – the grief of unmet expectations
 – why disappointment can quietly harden us
 – how to name what hurts without rushing to fix it

If this is where you are right now, this episode might help you stay honest, hopeful, and a little less alone.

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• Listening to Your Life, by Frederick Buechner 
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Order Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Get the monthly letter

Episode Website

What do you do when you’ve been pushing through for so long that exhaustion starts to feel normal?

If you’ve been feeling emotionally tired, stretched thin, or quietly overwhelmed by your own life lately, this episode might feel familiar.

In this episode of Walking Anyway, I talk about a season of burnout that slowly forced me to face my own limits — and what I’m learning now about exhaustion, ceasing, and why slowing down felt much harder than I expected.

In this episode:
 – why exhaustion is not always visible
 – the difference between numbing yourself and actually resting
 – what faithful living can look like when life feels emotionally unsustainable

Here on Walking Anyway, we practice staying with our lives in uncertain seasons, without rushing ourselves past what is real.

If this is where you are right now, I hope this episode helps you slow down long enough to notice what you need.

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Order Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Get the monthly letter

Episode Website

What do you do when God feels quiet—or silent—in something you’ve been asking God for… and nothing has changed?

If you’ve been praying or waiting—and nothing has changed—and you’re starting to wonder, does God hear me?—this might feel familiar.

In this episode, I talk about what it’s like when God feels quiet—and how to stay in relationship with Him when you don’t feel His presence.

Here on Walking Anyway, we practice faithfully staying with our lives in uncertain seasons.

In this episode:
 – what it feels like when God seems silent
 – the questions that come up when nothing is changing
 – a simple way to stay with God when you don’t feel His presence

If this is where you are right now, this episode might help you keep walking anyway without losing your footing.

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis
• Order Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Get the monthly letter

Episode Website

What do you do when you don’t know what comes next… but feel like you should by now?

If you’ve been feeling uncertain, or a little stuck in a season where nothing feels settled, this might feel familiar.

In this episode, I talk about the space between something ending and something new beginning—and what it’s like to live inside that moment when life doesn’t have a clear next step.

In this episode:
 – what it feels like when you don’t know what comes next
 – the pressure to figure things out
 – how to come back to what is true right now

If you’re in a season like this, this might help you feel less pressure to figure it all out—and a little more grounded in the middle of it.

You don’t have to figure it all out today.

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Order Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily 
• Get the monthly letter

Episode Website

What do you do when life feels heavy?

If you’ve been carrying something you can’t quite name, this might feel familiar.

In this episode, I talk about that kind of heaviness—and what it looks like to stay with it without rushing past it.

In this episode:
 – what it feels like to carry heavy feelings
 – why we try to move past discomfort
 – a simple practice that may help you when things feel heavier than expected

If this is where you are, this episode might help you stay with your life, without needing to fix it.

Links + Resources From This Episode:

• Start with a 21-day Guest Seat at The Table
• Find me on Instagram @denisa.o.nica
• Download a transcript of this, and every episode at www.denisaonica.com

Find Denisa Elsewhere:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Join Denisa's Substack
• Order Kairos, When The Holy Meets The Daily 
• Get the monthly letter

Episode Website