A Single Yes Can Be Life-Changing. What’s Your Next Yes?

A 13-year-old says, “I want to go to Uganda,” and a whole future cracks open. That’s where our conversation with Dr. Janelle Aby goes, and it’s why it sticks. Janelle is a physician, a clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford University, and the medical director of the newborn nursery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, but her most surprising work might be the stories she’s been brave enough to write down. We talk about her book-in-progress (working title: A Beautiful Mess) and why storytelling can cut through the endless noise and get us back to what matters.

We dig into how she writes without formal writing training, how reading shapes voice, and why the best stories often start as moments you can’t forget but can’t fully explain. One memory about her son Jack and a homeless man becomes a lesson in generosity with no guarantees. If you’ve ever wondered how to journal, write a memoir, or simply make sense of your life, her process is a practical map: capture the scene, then stay curious until the meaning shows itself.

Then the conversation turns to Uganda, global health, and faith in action. A connection with Damali and her orphanage grows into a community effort and, eventually, a newborn hospital project in a region with limited medical options. Janelle describes it like “surfing on a wave,” where you still take steps, but you’re not the one supplying the power. We also talk about obedience close to home, the courage to loosen control, and a relationship with a friend named Donna that proves community can be both hard and holy.

If this story nudges you to take one next step, don’t ignore it. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Her Book Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I'd like to welcome Janelle Abbey to the Pivotal People Podcast. And I'm really excited because I actually met Janelle in person five years ago at a writing workshop, Bob Goff's Retreat Center, the author Bob Goff. And, you know, there were many people there. We had some good conversations. She is so humble. I didn't realize until after we had left and I had, you know, read more about her how accomplished she is. So let me tell you about her. She's a doctor. She's a clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford University. You might have heard of it. And she's the medical director of the newborn nursery at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital. She's passionate about training medical students, nurses, and physicians in the care of newborns, including the recognition of physical findings specific to newborns. She's received all kinds of awards, and she's also authored textbooks about newborns' care and conditions, I guess, as I was looking at it. But what she's done recently is she's written a beautiful book, and I have read it, filled with inspiring stories that touch your heart and also point you toward Jesus. That's just how I'm going to describe it. And I'm so glad I read the whole book because I feel like I know her so well. And this is what I tell people everybody should write a book that really matters, a book filled with stories of things you care about and have other people read it. We would short circuit so much meaningless small talk if we just did that. We could understand each other. So, Janelle, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book and I can't wait to talk about it. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Thank you, Stephanie. It's so great to see you today. Thanks for inviting this conversation. And I'm just, yeah, super looking forward to talking about it with you.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Well, before we launch into I have questions about your whole experience, but tell us about yourself, who you do

Life As A Stanford Newborn Doctor

SPEAKER_00 2:05

life with, what you do to give people a and where you live, all of your basic details.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Yeah, perfect. So I live in Santa Clara, California. I never thought I'd be a California girl. I m, you know, grew up in the Midwest. I lived in the East Coast for a while. This was going to be my three-year California adventure, and here I still am, 30 years later. So I have a husband, Glenn, and two kids, Caitlin and Jack, who are now 20-something kids. They're grown. And we have a dog. You know, I spend my days like doing a lot of work still. I'm still seeing babies in the nursery, which I love. I have the best job ever. And then in my free time, I do all kinds of other things recently. I've been, you know, doing a lot of writing with this book. It's a big departure from the medical stuff that I've done in the past. But I do that, I do some sewing, I do some traveling, you know, just a lot of fun stuff, spending time with friends. And I think part of the thing that's kind of inspired this book, I guess, is just, you know, the realization that like what you said, you know, like the things that matter. We we spend a lot of time kind of talking about stuff that maybe doesn't matter so much. I mean, people's opinions on this and that and whatever, or or things that are just superficial things of the day, which are totally fine, you know, but a lot of times we don't get deeper than that. And we don't talk about the things that really matter or or share the vulnerabilities of where we, you know, need somebody. And I and I guess as I've sort of lived through, you know, some of the things that we've lived through in the past 10 years or so, both as a community and personally, I've realized more that like getting down to those things that matter and being willing to show our vulnerabilities to each other connects us and brings more meaning into our lives in a way that we might miss if we don't get there.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

In reading your book, I could tell how important relationships and friendships and family and connections and meeting new people and being adventurous, how important those things are too. And I kind of like got this life theme, Janelle, that I want to talk about. So, first of all, it's very inspiring to read your stories. Of course, everyone hears me say this. I've shared some with my husband. You know, we have talked about one thing you and I have in common is that we are both big fans of Bob Goff, in particular his book, Love Does. Janelle said in her book that she has bought over 75 copies over the years and given them away to people. I do the same thing. I give that book away. And you can't explain it. It's like, you know what? It's just better if you read the book. Here's the book, and then you'll understand. So here's what I think is so neat. First of all, your book is written in the Bob Goff style. And by the way, she is a very good writer. I like your combination of narration and also dialogue.

How She Learned To Write

SPEAKER_00 5:05

That's like a good writer, including dialogue. And you're very good at describing beautiful nature scenes. Like I can see it. So she's a doctor. So she's a medical doctor. And so I was kind of surprised that you also had this obviously very good writing skill. What can give us a little insight on that? Did you study writing in school or literature or liberal arts? Or why are you a good writer? This is what I want to know.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

No, I don't exactly know, except for the fact that when I was in high school, I had a couple of really amazing English teachers. Mrs. Foote was one of them. I'm blanking on the name of the other one. And wherever you are, if you happen to be hearing this, just know your lesson stuck. Like I feel like I had a really good just foundation in grammar and in kind of what makes, you know, good writing. But I never took any writing courses in college. I never had any official like training in that. I am an avid reader. So I mean, when our kids were little, I went through a stage where I didn't read like anything, not essential for 10 years or whatever. But but I love reading and I know what kind of reading I like. And I think my writing style has just kind of flowed out of that. Like, what kind of writing do I want to read? And also what kind of writing would I want to listen to? So part of the test for me is like I'm writing something as I'm reading it back to myself silently. I don't read it out loud, but like as I'm reading it to myself, like, can I hear the dialogue? Does it make sense? Does it, does it have the kind of inflection that I would want to be like, oh yeah, I resonate with that, I connect with that, or I can see that, you know, if I'm describing things like I love to describe to people our orange tree in the front, you know, it's like, how do I share with somebody who doesn't know about this particular orange tree, which I love? How can I make it like they're there? You know, what does it feel like?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

And that is how I felt. I love your orange tree story. I went down and I had some Mandarin oranges right after I read that. They were not as good as yours. I know that. So we're talking about Janelle's book, which is called Working Title Right Now, it's not published yet. It's called A Beautiful Mess. And it's a series of, you know, inspiring stories, but just real life day-to-day stories, which all end up with a lesson. And there were, as I was reading, it's very similar to Bob Goff's style, but it's Janelle's style, and it's Janelle's story. And I like to ask about the writing because I love to write too. I write every day with no audience but me. You know, you can write so much more freely when you really are not worrying about anyone ever reading it. Although my poor husband, I usually read it out loud to him later. The idea that writing is so therapeutic. So anyone listening to this, I'm not talking about publishing a book. I'm talking about kind of doing what Chanel did. I want to hear about what was the writing process for you because you were reflecting on your life. You were like reflecting on meaningful stories. Tell me, kind of like

Turning Memories Into Meaning

SPEAKER_00 8:20

now that you're done with that, reflecting back on it, how would you advise other people on writing if they've never written?

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yeah, you know, I would say I did not start out with the idea to write a book by any stretch. But what I started out with is, you know, you go through life and you have these stories somehow that like stick with you. It's like the funny story about the relatives at the camping trip, or it's the, you know, kind of, I don't know, poignant thing that happened at the whatever funeral. Or, you know, we do we all have these stories, I feel like, that it could be five years ago, could be last week, it could be 25 years ago, but for whatever reason, they stick with you and you remember what happened and you remember who said what and kind of the tone of voice in which they said it. And and so that's how it started for me is like I wondered, you know, one day, like, why do these stories stand out? Like, why do I remember that? And honestly, sometimes I didn't know. And when I started writing down the stories, I thought, well, I just need for my own self. I need to remember these. And maybe I would pass this on to my kids or something like that, that these are the things that happened. And it was a little hard at the beginning, honestly, because I have an easier time writing about what happened, you know, because that's what I remember. And I had a much harder time for some of them figuring out like, why does this matter? Why do I remember this event? And, you know, one of the stories I write about in the book is this interchange between Jack, my son, who was like eight or nine or something at the time, and this homeless guy. You know, Jack had asked the homeless guy for a couple of these used pizza boxes that at the time you could turn the used pizza boxes back into the pizza shop and get, you know, a quarter for each box. So it was a fun, like money-making thing for kids at the beach. Anyway, Jack saw that this guy had a couple of boxes and he was, you know, he was gonna ask them if he could have them. And anyway, uh it was just this very like, well, the guy gave him the boxes without asking. And then I don't know, it was just this really poignant moment for me of like, wow, you know, when Jack came back out of the shop with the quarters, and the guy had been standing, the homeless guy had been standing there outside the shop for a while. And I didn't really know what he was planning to do. He was just kind of standing there. But as soon as Jack got the boxes from him, he started walking up the street. And so when Jack came out from the pizza shop with his two quarters, I just kind of wondered to Jack, I'm like, you know, I wonder if he was waiting to turn them in himself, because you know, he he had started walking away. And so Jack like looks down at the quarters in his hand, and you could see him just like you can see the wheels in his head just turning, and he's thinking, and he takes off running up the sidewalk. And the guy was now like, you know, 50 yards up there, and he so I'm standing kind of watching this interaction, and he gives the guy the quarters, and the guy just kind of looks at them, and he and then Jack runs back to me and he kind of turns around, he just looks at Jack as he goes. And I mean, that scene and that story just stuck with me for so long. And I thought for a while that that was just like, oh, you know, that's me and teaching like a kid how to be kind and considerate of someone and whatever. And it wasn't until, I don't know, like probably 12 years later. And actually, as I was writing the story, it's got to be something bigger than that, because like why does that matter? Like, I mean, we teach kids stuff all the time, you know. When you have young kids, you're always teaching them things. And then I realized, like, as I was writing the story, like, oh, it wasn't so much about me teaching Jack. Like the homeless guy gave something without any guarantee of anything in return. You know, he just like a kid came up to him, asked him for something, and out of his like plastic, clear plastic bag of stuff, which was very minimal, he gave like this significant portion of his earthly belongings just by being asked. And I thought that's why I remember the story. But it it took me to writing it down to be able to figure that out. And so, you know, as I don't know, as this process has gone along, I feel like just the act of writing and the putting it down and the thinking about it has helped me draw out the meaning.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

So I found this thread in your book, and I don't know, this is how it hit me, and I don't know if you see this, but I'm gonna describe it and I might get the details wrong. But the thing about reading someone's stories and books is that you just said, I don't know why a story would matter, but you wrote it, and then it might be a way it impacts a reader you will never meet that ends up being the reason you wrote it. So let's go back to Bob Goff's Love Does book. And I'm just gonna summarize what I saw. Janelle loves that book. She actually met Bob Goff in person and sat down and had was it coffee with him? I mean, it was quite a story. You've got to buy the book to know it, but I mean, it was quite a story. She eventually goes to a Bob Goff retreat. That's where I met her. And one of his many stories inspired Janelle. And the story was he has a story where where his kids are 10 years old. He says, you know, you want to go on a special trip with me, and you can pick it, whatever you want. And so Janelle did that with her kids. Now her older daughter was already 13, so she got a retro trip. And her older daughter said she wanted to go to Uganda to an orphanage, right? Yeah. So Chanel figures that out. And you know what? I read the trials and tribulations of transportation in Uganda, and I'm like, I'm the person who sends a check. Okay. I just hope that there's a role for me. I'm just not, but she did it, and they went through. You won't believe what they went through, but they got there and discovered this woman, Damali Marimbi,

A Uganda Trip That Snowballed

SPEAKER_00 14:45

I think. She she runs an orphanage. We've had her on this podcast. She is one of our most popular episodes yet. We're going to have her on again. Janelle discovers her. She was, again, an amazing story. I and Janelle connected with her. And this woman started in her early 20s taking in abandoned babies into her home. And it grew to, I think, a three-phase orphanage, her brothers involved. And she's done this amazing ministry, saving children, raising children. And when I had her on the podcast, she was, I don't know, maybe she was 15 years into it, but just absolutely delightful. And we did a little fundraiser for her on the podcast, and we were able to support her. So, okay, so rewind. We got Janelle reads Bob's book. Then she connects with Janelle goes back to her church. She goes back to her friends. They do, they do fundraisers. They raise, I at one point you said your church $50,000. I'm sure it's been far more than that now. And remember, in the back of your head, remember, she is a doctor who specializes with newborns. And as of today, this has evolved. Her connection with Damali has evolved. They are almost done building a newborn hospital, which we're going to talk about right now. $1.8 million to build it, which by the way is hardly anything. You couldn't build anything like that in the United States for $1.8 million. But it is offering medical treatment. I think it was, you said, there isn't medical options within 100 kilometers of this area. So they're offering the community this huge medical opportunity by having a medical center. And it started with her daughter saying, I'd like to go to Uganda. This is going to make me cry. It started with you reading Bob's book. It started with you saying, okay, well, maybe I'll do a little something. And so did I get any of that right, Janelle? Yes, you got all of that right.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

And I it's amazing. It is amazing. And I'll just tell you that, like that whole kind of story, the progression of and all the turns and everything, but that whole thing about Uganda has been the thing in my life that I find God most present. And I describe it to people sometimes like feeling like you're just surfing on a wave, you know, like I'm not a big surfer. I've gone, I've gone a couple times. I'm not good at it. Yeah, yeah. But I did enough of it that I know the sensation of just like you're on that board and you, even though I'm on the tiniest little wave, like you feel the power just like coming up underneath you, and you know that it is not you propelling yourself forward. And that's how this whole Uganda thing has felt to me. It's like, yeah, we did have to take our little steps along the way. We did need to say yes to Caitlin, which was a bit of a thing, you know, taking your whole family to a place where we don't know a single soul was like, it took a little bravery on our part, you know, to do it. You don't really know if it's a good decision at the beginning or not. But that first step then unfolds into these other things. And yes, we ask people if they want to come. We're not completely passive. And also, you know, the way that God shows up. I mean, people say the most astonishing things. It's like when when this hospital thing was coming online, and I started inviting people from work to come with me, you know, one of the nurses and the unit secretaries, and and you know, there's a story in each one of these. But I would ask people like, hey, this is out of coming out of the clear blue sky, but like, is there any chance you'd want to go to Uganda and and work in this hospital thing or like do this training? And people would, before they would ask me how much it costs, before they asked me the dates, before they asked me anything, they'd be like, Yes, I'm so glad you asked me. When are we going? You know, and I'm just like, my jaws kind of dropping, like, really, really, are you okay, you know? And but there's been a so many things like that that are just confirming to me, like this is just us kind of being part of something bigger than ourselves. This is something that God has for us to do. We're just like stepping into the flow. And that has been so kind of life-changing for me, even just in terms of how I think about faith, how I think about what it means to be, you know, connected to God. We say a lot of times, you know, we have a personal relationship with God. And for a lot of years, like, okay, I would say that, but I didn't actually experience that, you know, like I didn't really know what that felt like or what that meant. You know, I would pray and it felt like your prayers were kind of like dissipating at the ceiling or something. Like, and this whole experience has just, I don't know, kind of broken the glass, you know, and just makes it feel like, ah, I get it now. Like I know what that's like now to feel like I'm really, you know, following what God wants me to be doing.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

That chapter that you had talking about how we'll recognize God, you know, recognizing people when you visited your adopted sponsored child, recognizing God. And one line that you said that I really loved was just the idea of, you know, we all wouldn't, wouldn't it be, I mean, I'm this is me talking. This is not a quote from her book, but just would love it if God would come and sit down next to us and be super clear and say, hi, Stephanie, is the whole thing is true, and here's what you need to do. Yeah, of course we'd all like that. But you talked about really personal relationship with God. That's, you know, church speak, right? Christian speak. But the reality of when things happen that are just too coincidental to be coincidental, then I'm like, okay, that's gotta be God.

Surfing The Wave Of Faith

SPEAKER_00 20:55

You know, okay, that's gotta be God. So I keep looking at your story, and it's not like Stanford Medical Center said, you know what, it would be a really good idea if we built a hospital in Uganda. They really need one, and this makes a lot of sense because we are, you know, probably at the top of the medical field in the whole country. We should do this. No, that's not how it happened. It was a little 13-year-old girl who said, I want to go to Uganda to a mother who is way more flexible than I am. And she said, Okay, we'll figure it out. And you got there, and then you met this wonderful woman, Damali. Okay, and then it was a step at a time. And you talk about the whole surfing thing. I love that. I see that story. And now the outcome is you've got all these Stanford doctors involved in this project in Uganda. Okay, that just feels like God. I see what you're saying. It just feels it's not a program, it's not a, you know, created as a checklist to hey, this is what good Christians do. It is following step by step because at the beginning, when you're okay, you couldn't have handled at the beginning when Caitlin said, I want to go to Uganda. If you had gotten a call from someone in Uganda who said, Hey, listen, Chanelle, would you mind heading up an initiative to build a $1.8 million hospital here? You might say, I really am not qualified to do that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Totally. I would have 100% said, No, no, that no absolute way. Like I've got too much other stuff going on. Thanks. Sounds like a great idea, but I'm not your gal.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Right. Right. And yet, you are the perfect gal because now this story is out there. And this story is going to be in a book. And who knows who's going to read it. And by the way, I'm going to say this: like people like me, who, as I said to my husband, oh man, I'm just too comfortable in my little safe routine, just talking about the driving in Uganda, like they have two lanes. People invent a third lane in the middle. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So there is Bob Goff says this too. And he says, it is noble to go across the ocean, but it's obedient to go across the street. So it's also okay just to go across the street. And people have heard this on this podcast before. I decided a few years ago, okay, there are four elderly people in my neighborhood. I'm going to make chicken salad, and one by one, I'm going to knock on the door. They might invite me in for a visit, and they all do because they have time in their home. And I thought I was doing this nice thing by, you know, reaching out and meeting these people. And as it turned out, and you know the end of the story, I've just been totally blessed with these great new friends who are 20 years older than me, 30 years older than me. They are funny. They are wise. They are irreverent. They don't care about what people think anymore. They are my friends. They are my trusted friends. And I am so thankful for them. So one of them has moved on to a nursing home. And I finished Janelle's book. I'm like, you know what? I keep saying I'm going to go visit her. I haven't. We're getting, as soon as we're off this call, I'm calling her up and I'm going to visit her this week. That's what I can do. So you can read Janelle's story and you can say, well, I could never do that. But you can do what you can do, what feels comfortable for you. But what I love so much, you can tell, I'm just excited about her stories, but is that you took that book you read from Bob and you took one small thing from it. And you never thought, does Bob even know the story? Bob should know the story. He's got to know the story. I'm going to tell him about. I'm going to email him. Talk to Chanel at your workshop. She's got this amazing Uganda story. The other thing that I want to talk about a little bit is there were so many stories you shared. Oh gosh, about letters, about neighbors, about being a safe harbor. Your daughter Caitlin and your son Jack. Wow. Just take the chicken. God's putting on a show. All these wonderful topics, but there is a quote you said on page 81. And it is, I'm also learning. It isn't up to me to make things happen. It's just up to me to keep following. And somehow, when I'm willing to just take the next step instead of trying to control the outcome, amazing things happen. Things well beyond anything I would have imagined. So talk to me about following. You were talking about that. Talk more about that. Your experience.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Yeah, it's just that. It's like for a lot of us, I think we like to be in control of things. And we like to plan ahead and we like to, you know, start backwards. I think it's kind of an American Western sort of way to be like, start with the goal in mind. You have a goal. You have, you know, okay, figure out all the steps it takes to get that goal, who are the people who you need to like get the goal and do all of that. And and like that's kind of how we do things. And I feel like more and more like that is not what God calls us to do. Partly because, like, where's the trust in that, you know? And I don't always know like what's irresponsible versus what's trusting, you know. We don't always know. But my experience going through these different things that we've had live through, you know, is like we get the more amazing outcomes, I guess, or experiences by just sort of taking one step. So I'll give you an example that's not Uganda, and that is that, well, it's a little related to Uganda. We invited this woman, Donna, who is just firecracker of a lady. I mean, you see me, I'm white, my family is white. We go to a church that's mostly white, some Asian, some Hispanic, but very few black

Letting Go Of Control

SPEAKER_01 26:55

people in it. Donna was one of those few. She was tall, she's six feet tall, single. And like our church is like pretty, I don't know how to describe it, reserved, I guess. Like, you know, you go through the process, people sing, they stand up to sing, whatever, the speaker speaks, and everyone listens. And but you know, Donna was like the person who would like talk back to the preacher. And if they ask a rhetorical question, she's gonna like shout it out the answer, you know. So anyway, we invited Donna at some point to go to Uganda. And I totally thought she was gonna say no, because she had made very clear she doesn't like babies, she doesn't like traveling, she only likes certain foods. Like, I'm thinking, like, there's no no absolute way she would go to Uganda. And she's like, she says, Well, I'd have to check with my work about it. And I'm like, oh, okay. Well, so so and then she, you know, she's like, Well, you know, I might be able to get the time off. Can we get together and like talk about more of the details? Because she's super uncomfortable with travel. And I'm like, sure, you know, how about you want to come over for dinner on Thursday? You know, we can we'll be home. We can have have some time. And then I sent her an email that was like, is there any foods that you can't eat? People have different allergies or intolerances or whatever. I want to make something that everyone can enjoy, eat. And she sends me back this like hilarious email. I don't think she meant it to be funny, but it was totally funny to me. She's like, here's what I can eat. I can eat chicken with this very specific brand of teriyaki sauce. I can eat brown rice, white rice, broccoli, corn, and carrots. Period. And I'm like, okay, okay, then. So, you know, we we we have her over for dinner and we talk about Uganda and And then at the end of dinner, she says, can we do this every week until we go? And like, I mean, okay, just keep in mind, like, we were like nine months away from Uganda trip. And so Glenn and I are kind of like, huh, you know, like, well, I guess we can do that. And it wasn't like, I don't know. I mean, I also was kind of like, I'm not eating chicken teriyaki every single week from now until we leave, you know. So we kind of figured that out and worked with it. But, you know, as it turned out, Donna became part of our family. And we have so many stories that we could share about Donna. You know, she's a social worker by training, and and it wasn't always easy, I'll just be honest, to have Donna over for dinner every single week. Because there's parts about her that are difficult, you know, for us to deal with. And at the same time, there's parts about us that were really difficult. I mean, when you have someone over every single week, like the good behavior wears off pretty quick. At some point, you know, that she got to see the unvarnished us and the us that had table conflicts and had, you know, bad manners and frankly just rude or unhappy. And she got to be part of all of that, and she got to live, you know, kind of part of her life with that. And so, you know, that again is another example to me of like just kind of taking the next step, being open to take the next step. I I don't know what, well, at the time, I didn't know what sort of made me lean over to Donna and say, hey, do you want to go? Now, in retrospect, I feel like I know it was, you know, God asking me to invite her because all of the things that have transpired out of that and the ways that Donna has touched our life, touched our family is something I could never, ever, ever have planned. Like I wouldn't have been known to sort of anticipate that. And yet I feel like God just took us on this most incredible, incredible journey. And I could talk for a long, long time about Donna. She passed away last July. So

Donna And The Courage To Say Yes

SPEAKER_01 30:55

I'm sorry. Missing her. But the mark she made on our lives, all of our lives, you know, our daughter Caitlin will say the reason that she is in social work is largely because of Donna. And she had a special relationship with Jack, and the two of them would talk about stuff. And I just like, yeah, it's just like saying yes to even some like difficult things or things that seem like, I don't know if that's really a good idea, you know, has just led us to the most amazing place. And that then gives me the courage to say when something else comes up that's a little like, I don't really know if this is such a great idea, but but I feel like we should do this. I feel like we should say yes to this. It's a little out of the box. And also like, let's just see where that goes. And yeah, I've just found that to be such a more rewarding way to live than the me trying to plan things out. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Okay, you've inspired me. I'm gonna try to be a little more open to things outside of my routine. If either one of my sons is listening to this, they're gonna be right, mom, I'd like to see that. But there's also a freedom, right? And not not having to plan and seeing what happens. I'm like that when we go to a city. I would much rather just wander around a city and go down a side street and see what the regular people living there are doing than go on a bus tour of the city. So, you know, I you're talking about approaching life in that way, which is kind of neat. Yeah. So, well, I'm excited for you, and I'm this is gonna be fun to watch your the birth of your book, beautiful mess. We'll see. And I I told Janelle, I know this is early to come on the podcast, but I was really just looking for an excuse to connect with her. You can see why now. When the book is published, it might even have a different title. Who knows? I'm just gonna say right now, she would just love to come back on the Pivotal People Podcast and talk about it. I would. I would appreciate that. And you're going back to a Bob Goff writer's workshop this week. So I have a feeling you're gonna leave there with a pretty good action plan. This book is probably gonna be published pretty soon. How can people get in touch with you? I know your book's not out, but you have an email newsletter. So do you have a place where people can land to find you yet? Yeah, I'll share with you the link to sign up for the email newsletter.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

And I'll put that in the show notes. Yeah. It's new, but it's really just meant to be, I call it my be encouraged email list. You know, what I love about it, I feel like it's gonna be just a community of like, we all need encouragement. And so as I as I write up, you know, the blessings in it and think about the reflections in it and all of that. It's like I'm not writing from a place where like I've got it all figured out and I'm sharing with everybody else. I'm writing from a place of like, I need this too, you know, I need encouragement, I need to think about beautiful things, I need to also just be real about hard things. Like there are hard things that we go through. And what I found is like having a community of people, whether it's a close friend that you can call up and say, like, oh my gosh, I just like, I just need you to be with me, you know, you don't have to say anything. I just need you to be here because it's so hard and it's so beautiful at the same time. Like we can find some beauty in that hard stuff. So that is my hope with this email newsletter, is just it's once a month.

Newsletter And Closing

SPEAKER_01 34:35

I'm not gonna like, you know, cram people's inbox full of stuff, but just a way to kind of share the beauty that we find in the midst of you know the hard I love that.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Well, um wish you the best of luck. I thank you so much for being on here, and I will let you know when we go live with this podcast. Thank you. It's so great to be with you today, Stephanie.