A life with fewer regrets | Introducing Season 3 of Money on the Table

One of my favorite parts about summer break is the post-dinner unwind. This is a wild statement coming from me because it’s one of my least favorite times of the day during the other nine months of the year. But freed from the hurried bedtime routine we use during the school year? Baby, I’m a new woman!!???

The days are fun too, but evenings give us time to be together without an agenda for our energy or mood. We simply enjoy the sights and sounds of summer before all the responsibilities kick back in and we have to fill another day of unstructured time.

A few weeks ago, we noticed swarms of lightning bugs in our backyard. The first flickers were subtle, but then more and more twinkles appeared. Now, I get to hear Beau’s gasp of delight nightly as they entertain us with their little light display.

We laugh about how they’re nature’s one-hit wonder and imagine how cool it would be if humans had glow-in-the-dark butts too. As he drifts off to sleep, it becomes clear that it’s dinner time in the treetops because the?sound of hungry birds chirping in search of their next meal gets louder.

Julien and I use it as a cue to shift gears the same way DJs use slow jams before the lights cut on. We?start talking about the existential dilemmas lightning bugs must face during their brief 60-day lifespan.

On one hand, their ability to flash attracts mates, which is necessary for reproduction and their species’ survival. But on the other hand, the flashing makes them more visible to predators like birds and seven-year-old boys with mason jars.

It’s a short life where their fate is either to glow and get and busy, or glow and get got. And despite having very little control over what happens to them, they flash their lights anyway.

Bugs’ instincts are wired for survival in a way ours aren’t, as anyone who’s seen two dragonflies mating in midair smash into a windshield can tell you. For them, it’s more of a reflex than a conscious choice. While they face life-or-death consequences from their biological programming, nature has given humans the gift of higher reasoning.

Now, admittedly, consciousness is not as show-stopping?as a booty-bulb, but it’s still a pretty decent party trick ??.

Survival requires a strategy, and this allows us to thoughtfully weigh risks and rewards when our primal urges pull us in different directions. It’s a tool to make choices beyond basic impulses, but it doesn’t come with an instruction manual, unfortunately.

You see how nature sets us up?! It gives us all these incredible features, without providing easy answers to the problems they create ??

Thankfully, we have language.

Terms like ‘regret’ exist to describe what happens when what feels good in the moment doesn’t pay off down the road. Feeling regret about certain decisions provides feedback that helps us make wiser choices going forward. Talking about regret allows us to process what happened, gain different perspectives, and discover unexpected lessons.

We couldn’t think of a more timely topic to kick off the return of our award-winning original video series, Money on the Table. We’ll be sharing more about Season 3 in next week’s podcast, but if you’re new here, the show is a groundbreaking concept that uses the power of food to transform the way we think about money.

Episode 1 is called “A Life With Fewer Regrets” and we’re cooking shakshuka, a North African dish made with eggs poached in a chunky tomato sauce. The word shakshuka translates to ‘all mixed up’ which perfectly describes how so many of us have felt as our lives were tossed in a blender these past few years.

Over breakfast, we talk about what we’ve been up to since Season 2, the mental and emotional side of making big changes, and the struggle to find your own path to a fulfilling life. Because we all know that feeling. You’re out there flashing your lights to survive but sometimes it seems like you’re just glowing to glow, with no guarantees of what you’ll attract.

It’s a conversation about whether regret is always negative or if it can be a catalyst for positive change. And look, we may not have the answers you need - but I’m telling you, these lightning bugs seem to have figured something out!I

I read that when you see them flying at different heights, it’s because they take turns playing different roles. The ones closer to the ground are bumpin uglies to save the species, and the ones flying higher are looking out for predators and alerting the ones below to danger. If that’s not how you live a life with fewer regrets, then I don’t know what is!?

The point is, they've got each other's backs so they can all make the most of their limited time?here and get their glow on in peace. My hope is that our conversations have the same effect. Welcome to our table.

Happy belated Father’s Day to all the Dads!

This week on the podcast, Julien recorded a special solo episode where he offers a heartfelt and inspiring look into the actual experience of fatherhood. He opens up about his own journey, and gets real about the whole “I thought I could plan for this thing” (spoiler alert: you can’t). If you're a dad, or even thinking about becoming one, this is the episode for you. It's a reminder that being present, being there for your kid, even in the messy, crazy, exhausting moments is the real gift.

Listen to episode 167 now or watch it below on YouTube