Some of the most important things you’ll ever build are forged in the dark. A reflection on shadow work, burnout, and why we keep showing up when no one’s watching.

After the work is done, who are you? This is a meditation on presence, burnout, and the remembering of who you were—before and beyond the task.

A scaffold isn’t the structure—it’s the support. In life, just like on a jobsite, we rely on temporary systems to help us grow. Habits, routines, mentors—they hold us while we become. But scaffolds are meant to come down. What remains is what’s real.

As a kid, I didn’t understand why my father pointed out the buildings he built. Now, I do. Every project leaves a mark—not just on the world, but on the builder. Time passes, work endures, and what we leave behind tells the quiet story of who we were. We build structures, but we also build a life. Every beam, every wall, every project is a footprint in time. A testament that says: I was here.

Sometimes, you rebuild not because you broke it, but because you see a better way. There's a myth we tell ourselves about starting over....

Plans change. Stay calm. Flow like the Buddha, build with clarity, and don’t let chaos knock you off center.