Thread

Life Is a Spiral: You Always Get a Second Chance to Grow Life rarely follows a straight line. Some climb a single mountain, step by step. Others live in spirals — returning to lessons they thought they had learned, discovering challenges they thought they had overcome, and finding the courage to begin again. I was born in Kampala, Uganda, and by age nine, my family had migrated first to the Netherlands and then on to New Zealand. Migration became my first initiation into change: learning new schools, new cultures, and how to belong. Leaving school early, working in a supermarket, I often felt adrift. At nineteen, I returned to the Netherlands to reconnect with family, find meaning, and pursue education. I eventually earned a master’s degree in economics, all while cultivating a meditation practice that has grounded me for decades. Later in life daily journaling and ashtanga yoga — where breath and movement merge — became the steady compass that carried me through life’s uncertainties. When i was young I climbed what David Brooks calls the “first mountain” — career, family, and societal success. But divorce, heartbreak, and unfulfilling work brought me into valleys I could not avoid. Life was asking me to grow, to shed what no longer served me, and to rediscover myself. In Amsterdam, I started again, living closer to my children, leaning into meditation, and embracing a life that felt authentic. I dreamed of sailing around the world — literally charting a new course. Life surprised me: I met my wife, we had a baby, and when our son was three months old, we set sail. For two and a half years, we lived on a small boat, crossing oceans, facing storms and challenges, and learning persistence, trust, and patience in real time. We eventually arrived in New Zealand and built a home surrounded by nature, with a flourishing garden, a sanctuary after decades of change. I still meditate twice a day, journal daily, practice ashtanga yoga, walk barefoot on the beach with my dog, enjoy good conversation and coffee Now I coach others through their own turning points, not from theory, but from lived experience. If there is one truth my spiral journey has taught me: you always get a second chance to grow. Every heartbreak, every move, every storm is an invitation to deepen, renew, and discover your true self. Life is not a straight climb. It is a spiral. And with each turn, we are given another chance — to rise, to renew, to grow.