Cutting Life's Safety Nets

Yesterday I put my signature on a paper that officially steers my career in a new direction.

I left teaching high school math a little over two years ago in order to work full-time in my coffee business. I traded stability for adventure. A high-structured job where simple needs like going to the bathroom were dictated by electronic bells buzzing through busy hallways, and exchanged that for the freedom to set my own schedule. I tossed my collared button-down shirts aside in favor of shorts and flip flops.

Business, Faith, Overcoming Fears, The JourneyNathan WestwickFebruary 25, 2016Leap of Faith, Trust Comments

Observing Lent From a Different Perspective (an Ode to Ash Wednesday)...

As today marks the first day of Lent, I felt it worthwhile to explore a few topics on the matter.

First, cycling.

As you may know, I try to spend a lot of time on my bike. I love getting outside, breathing deep of the fresh air and enjoying the songs of birds as I ride through quiet streets. I love the rhythm of the turning of the pedals, and how that rhythm propels the bike quickly down the road. I love riding hills, because the hills make me stronger and I feel like I’ve accomplished something each and every time I summit.

I guess I just love that cycling teaches me so much about life in general.

Faith, The JourneyNathan WestwickFebruary 10, 2016Lent, Life Lessons of CyclingComment

Mustering the Strength to Fight On…

For most of my life, I’ve felt like a pretty emotionally stable bloke. But lately, it seems my days are bookended by feelings of anxiety at night followed by moods of depression in the mornings.

There are a variety of reasons for these emotions, but most of them are related to my continued realization that life (at least the good stuff) is really tough. That in order to live a full life, there are things I have to face head-on and fight each and every day.

Fighting for What's Good, Life Abundant, Overcoming Fears, The JourneyNathan WestwickJanuary 28, 2016Fighting OnComment

Live A Courageous Life

I had the opportunity to speak to a group of young professionals last night. It was a great time sharing my personal story and that of my business with an absolutely great audience. What struck me as I was sharing was fairly profound:

A life lived courageously is really the only life worth truly living.

Faith, Overcoming Fears, The JourneyNathan WestwickNovember 11, 2015Stepping Out, Sharing is Caring Comment

My Personal Encounter With A Wild Cat

I used to walk blissfully through life, all the while not knowing I was being stalked by a wild, stealthy cat—one with big teeth and sharp claws, and when it jumped me, I was caught so off guard I didn’t know quite what to do.

The Journey, Faith, Overcoming FearsNathan WestwickOctober 7, 2015Overcoming Fears Comment

Joy vs. Sorrow

My last 24 hours were contrasts on such heightened levels I honestly don’t know where to begin.

On Sunday evening I had the privilege of being a groomsman in a wedding of two lovely people who joyfully celebrated the beginning of a new life together.

On Monday I found out that a buddy of mine was hit by a car while on a morning jog and being held in the ICU in critical condition after emergency brain surgery.

Relationships, The JourneyNathan WestwickSeptember 30, 2015Joy, Sorrow Comment

Journeying Through Life's Headwinds

- Part 2 in a Study of Contrasts -

For nearly my entire childhood, life felt easy.

Friendships came easily, good grades came with little effort, even my junior high saxophone days had me playing first chair in the concert band. I won free stuff in high school (a CD player, a week at Magic Johnson’s basketball camp, even a trip to Europe) and I got in to the colleges I wanted. I even got a convertible for my 16th birthday.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had formed a worldview where everything seemed to go my way, and that although “hard work” was required to achieve, my awareness of hard work was quite limited.

The JourneyNathan WestwickSeptember 23, 2015Hardship, Perseverance Comment

Because We're All a Little Screwed Up

I figured a poem might be fun today. Analyze at your own risk... :)

The Walking Wounded

Faith, The JourneyNathan WestwickAugust 26, 2015Wounds, Healing Comment

The Fur Coats

I have this coat that I wear. It is made of fur, and I’ve had it on all of my life. Since birth I’ve been wearing this coat around my shoulders, the heat of it keeping me warm and comfortable. It is such a part of me that I honestly can’t imagine life without it.

I suppose I must admit the weight and heat can be dreadfully uncomfortable at those times when the summer sun is scorching me. No doubt I would like to rid myself of this coat in the summer—when the sun’s light torments the land longer, hotter, and with a concentrated brutality. But like another layer of skin, I refuse to shed this coat of mine—we’ve been through a lot together, you see... I even have a name for the coat. It’s called Self, since I feel it is such an integral part of me; it and me, one in cause, one in duty, one in mission.

Faith, Relationships, The JourneyNathan WestwickJuly 29, 2015Burdens, FreedomComment

Proverbs From a Road Trip

We just got back from a two-week road trip which included four nights tent camping in the Rockies. I figured I might share some of my observations about the experience; including some of the things I’ve come to appreciate after four nights with nothing but a thin nylon wall separating me from Mother Nature…

Family, The JourneyNathan WestwickJuly 22, 2015Family Time, Vacation, NatureComment

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