Dear Empowered Reader,
One hundred newsletters.
That is one hundred moments of sitting down, often with a mug of tea or coffee and a heart full of both hope and uncertainty, to ask:
“What might support the readers of this newsletter today?”
When this began, the list was made up of a few family members, friends, and a handful of colleagues who were willing to take a chance on a new idea about regeneration, courage, and well-being.
Since then, the email list has grown, and we are starting to build a community.
A lot has changed for me along the way: job titles, locations, formatting of the newsletter, and more. What hasn't is: To tell the truth about how hard change can be. To offer simple, doable practices for your real life. To remind you that you are capable of more ease, more courage, and more possibility than you might feel in this exact moment.
I still write to one person at a time.
Today, that person is you.
As I reviewed the 100 issues, certain themes kept circling back.
Courage that looks like everyday life
We’ve talked about courage not as a superhero cape, but as the quiet decision to have the hard conversation, to leave the misaligned job, to rest when your worth has been tangled up in overwork.
Courage in the Empower Possible community has looked like therapy appointments, resignations, new business launches, and simply admitting: “I’m not okay, and I need help.”
Mindfulness
Rather than polished perfection, we’ve practiced tools like R.A.I.N. while standing at the kitchen sink, in the car before a meeting, or during a 10-minute walk around the block.
Mindfulness here is not about escaping your life; it is about being present to it, with all its beauty, boredom, and grief.
Letting go and beginning again
We have explored how releasing expectations, roles, and old stories makes room for something new to grow.
Sometimes letting go has meant stepping away from a role, a version of success, or a relationship with work that was depleting you, even if it looked “good on paper.”
Gratitude that doesn’t ignore pain
Together we have practiced gratitude in seasons of illness, caregiving, and loss, not as a way to bypass pain, but as a way to notice the small, steady lights that show up anyway.
A cup of tea, the North Shore, a neighbor’s help with a snowbank, a friend’s text at just the right time. These have become reminders that we can hold both heartbreak and hope.
Un-caped heroes and shared leadership
We have honored the friends, the family members, the colleagues, the caregivers, the unseen organizers, the people who hold communities together.
Leadership, in this community, is not about titles. It is about showing up with empathy, boundaries, and a willingness to keep trying.
The EMPOWER way of seeing the world
EMPOWER—Engage, Meaning, People, Organizations, Well-being, Empathy, Regenerate—has become a compass for how we move through change.
“Possible” is the whisper underneath it all: you are not stuck, even when it feels like you are; there is always a next small step.
As we mark 100 issues together, let's reflect What has this newsletter made possible for you?
Maybe it gave you language for burnout, a prompt you brought to your team, or simply permission to be kinder to yourself. Name it. Where are you feeling called to regenerate, not just persist?
Is it your schedule, your health, your leadership, your creativity, your relationships, or your sense of purpose? What is one small, compassionate adjustment you can make this week? Who are you becoming—and what support do you need?
When you imagine your future self a year from now, what are they grateful you started today? What conversations, tools, or stories would help you move toward that version of you?
You’re always welcome to copy these questions into a journal, bring them to a walk, or talk them through with a trusted friend.
Help shape the next 100 This community has never been about broadcasting from a distance; it has always been about weaving something together.
The next 100 newsletters are a co-creation. If you are willing, hit reply and share: Topics you’d love to see explored (for example: navigating change at work, boundaries, regenerative leadership, grief, creative risk, systems change, joy rituals, or something I haven’t named yet). Formats that serve you best (short stories, practical tools, reflection questions, mini-series on a theme, interviews, or behind-the-scenes of building Empower Possible). What you most need from this space in the season you’re in: courage, clarity, companionship, permission to rest, or a nudge to act.
Your responses will help guide the next courses, retreats, and offerings, too, because EMPOWER Possible was built for real people with real lives, not abstract “readers.”
From the bottom of my heart: thank you.
Thank you for opening these emails on heavy days and hopeful days.
Thank you for sharing them with colleagues, family, and teams.
Thank you for allowing my words into the tender, complicated, beautiful places of your life. It is an honor to write to you.
It is an honor to walk alongside you as you engage, find meaning, care for people and organizations, tend to your well-being, lead with empathy, and choose regeneration over resignation.
Take care, dear reader,
Julie Zaruba Fountaine
Founder, Empower Possible |
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