06/23/2026
This past month has been a reminder of how fragile and precious life really is.
I celebrated my 50th birthday on May 20. Seven days later, I learned that my dear friend had died after a long struggle with substance use disorder.
Years earlier, I lost my father to the same disease.
A motorcycle trip through seven states gave me the space to sit with all of it: the grief, the memories, the questions, and ultimately, the clarity that sometimes comes when we step away from our daily routines long enough to hear ourselves think.
Over 3,300 miles, through mountains, forests, small towns, and long stretches of open road, I found myself thinking about these two people that I’ve loved deeply and lost because of their struggles with alcohol.
Grief has a way of changing shape over time. Sometimes it’s loud. Sometimes it sits quietly beside you for years. But on this trip, I realized that both losses continue to shape how I move through the world and why certain work feels so important to me.
When I started Eleos Connect, it wasn’t because I had all the answers. It was because I had experienced firsthand the pain, complexity, and isolation that often surround substance use, mental health struggles, and healing. I know what it feels like to lose someone. I also know what it feels like to wonder if healing is even possible.
The conversations around recovery, harm reduction, mental health, and connection are not abstract to me. They are personal.
I nearly lost my own life because of alcohol.
That experience changed the course of my life, and it continues to shape how I show up in the world today.
Somewhere between the dust, the wind, the mountains, and the endless miles, I found a little more clarity about what matters most: connection, compassion, and creating spaces where people feel seen, supported, and less alone.
Those values are at the heart of Eleos Connect, and they’re becoming even more central to my own life as well.
I’m grateful for the people who have walked beside me, the lessons that have come from loss, and the opportunity to keep turning pain into purpose.
Eleos Connect has a long road ahead of it. We are still in the early stages, but I believe deeply in what is possible when people come together to support healing, reduce stigma, and remind one another that no one has to walk this path alone.
