2025 Issue #37 🍁

Happy Sunday, Reader!

Greetings from Sheboygan, where we are exhausted after a successful Wonder Weekend! Thanks to everyone who attended Wondernite, watched the livestream, purchased The Penguin Who Flew, and participated in the auction. 🙏 You're playing a part in making dreams come true!

Yesterday, we held what may be the last Wonder & Whimsy Society Family Reunion in our backyard. I've learned to never say never, but for now, Kim and I have decided to tie a bow around the W&WS, feeling called to move on to other things.

A project born of the pandemic that lasted five years, it was a labor of love that changed lives for the better, most notably our own. It was a difficult decision that took a good part of a year to come to. It was reminiscent of the time I resolved to retire my comic strip, "Kim & Jason," after investing six-plus years into it.

Both decisions came after a lot of prayer. I wanted to be sure that we weren't abandoning ship just because persisting was hard. The issue of pride also makes it difficult to move on. Was I wrong to pursue it? Does stepping away make it a failure (and a public one at that)? Did I waste years on something not meant to be?

Our lives are made up of seasons. Entering a new one doesn't automatically make the last one bad, or wrong, or a failure.

When we left Madison for Sheboygan in 2021, there were many signs that it was time to move on from a place that had been our home for twenty years. It was tempting to regard it as an evil ex-girlfriend who wronged me. But I never could. Yes, there were reasons for leaving, but that place and community served us well for two decades. I just couldn't get myself to paint over the positive with a broad brush of negativity, as if we were fooled or mistreated.

Just because something ends doesn't mean it was bad.

Each season has a reason.

Each one is its own gift.

Each season brings forth something good, even the particularly trying or unhappy ones.

What can trip us up, however, are misaligned expectations. I talked about this in my presentation at Wondernite Friday night, and will share more later. The short version is that expectations are merely predictions of how we think or hope something might go. Sometimes we are right, and sometimes we are wrong. In either case, they were still predictions.

We lose our sense of peace when we refuse to let go of something because "this wasn't the way it's supposed to go."

Seasons are a natural part of life, and we experience different ones in our relationships, careers, and health.

A change from one season to the next is not necessarily an indicator that you're doing something wrong.

It's ok to feel sadness when a particular season ends. I did when I said goodbye to my comic strip, and I do now, saying goodbye to the Wonder & Whimsy Society. As much of a relief as it is when your kids can sleep through the night, there's also a sadness that your days of rocking them to sleep are also numbered. It's ok to be sad when a sweet season comes to an end; that means it mattered.

We can and should learn from every season we experience. We should look for and be grateful for the blessings that came from them. And we can look forward to new seasons with hopeful anticipation.

But we shouldn't beat ourselves up because summer turned into fall.

🤔 I wonder...what season were you most sad to move on from? What new season are you looking forward to with anticipation? Reply to share your thoughts with me, or join the conversation in the Escape Adulthood League!

Stay young and stay fun,

Now Available! The Penguin Who Flew is Jason Kotecki’s first-ever children’s book, starring a persistent penguin named Marty with an impossible dream. Learn more

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