Jonathan Fields

If I offer up the phrase to live a good life, what comes up?

Thank you.

So let's talk about some of the big ahas and actionable takeaways from this conversation.

The thing that I'm really sitting with from this conversation is how much of what we call loneliness, especially in the middle years of life, is actually a ritual deficit.

It's not that we do not have people.

It's that we don't have the ceremonies that tell our people, this matters.

I'm in a transition.

I need you to witness it with me and maybe be a part of it with me.

A few things I want to carry forward with this.

Bruce's definition of a ritual is maybe the most portable one that I have encountered.

A shared unnecessary act that makes you feel at home.

You do not need permission.

You do not need a guide or a script or a hundred people.

You just need a threshold, a purpose, and at least one other person.

The five ritual elements he walked us through, welcoming, setting stakes, showing empathy, creating meaning, and closing with hope.

You can build something real with those five moves in an evening, sometimes even in a few minutes as we just saw, with people you already know using things already available to you.

And one final thing.

The most powerful words in the English language, according to Bruce, are not necessarily I love you.

They're you're not alone.

Whatever transition you're moving through right now,