The Journal

Essays on the work of the second half of life. Published monthly. Honest, sometimes hard to hear, always written from inside the climb.


  • Hello World!

    Welcome to WordPress! This is your first post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey.

    Read the essay


  • Falling Upward, Slowly

    Falling Upward, Slowly

    Richard Rohr says the two halves of life are separated not by age but by a fall. Something stops working, and the failure turns out to be the doorway. A report from the far side of a year spent falling on purpose.

    Read the essay


  • What Are You Choosing Not to See?

    What Are You Choosing Not to See?

    I planned to ask a room of accomplished people what they’d do if they gave themselves permission to take risks. A week before the retreat, I realized it was the wrong question. These were people who’d taken risks their whole lives. The right question was harder.

    Read the essay


  • The Second Sunrise

    The Second Sunrise

    Last week, seventeen of us drove north to a summer camp on a lake in Wisconsin and spent five days asking each other questions we’d stopped asking ourselves. I can’t tell you what was said in the circle. I can tell you what the place did to us.

    Read the essay


  • In Defense of Discomfort

    In Defense of Discomfort

    We’ve engineered difficulty out of our lives so completely that we now pay to get it back. That’s not a joke about exercise bikes. It’s the most practical insight I know about staying alive in the second half of life. Next month, a group of us is testing…

    Read the essay


  • The Quiet Distance

    The Quiet Distance

    The dangerous season of midlife doesn’t announce itself with a crisis. It arrives as a gap between the life you built and how it feels to live it. Most of us respond by building more. That’s the one move guaranteed not to work.

    Read the essay


  • The Permission You’re Not Giving Yourself

    The Permission You’re Not Giving Yourself

    I’m fifty-five years old. I’m the managing partner of a national law firm. And every July, I spend a month as a summer camp counselor in the north woods of Wisconsin. Everyone thought I’d lost my mind. It was the sanest thing I’d done in years.

    Read the essay


The Trailhead Letter

Each new essay, delivered to your inbox. Nothing said in a Trailhead circle, and nothing for sale.

Feature is an online magazine made by culture lovers. We offer weekly reflections, reviews, and news on art, literature, and music.

Please subscribe to our newsletter to let us know whenever we publish new content. We send no spam, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Designed with WordPress.