It’s early. The kind of early where the sky hasn’t made up its mind yet. I walk with slow intent, gravel underfoot, the faint orange edge of dawn trying to lift from the horizon. My jacket hangs open even though the air hasn’t fully woken up. There’s a quiet resistance in my chest. Not dread. Something closer to uncertainty. The kind of pause that comes before you choose whether today will just be worked… or truly practiced.
You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment.
The hardest part of tending the forge isn’t when the fire roars. It’s when it doesn’t. When it has burned low enough that you start to wonder if it’s worth lighting again. When you’re not tired because of intensity, you’re tired because you remember what intensity costs.
You can’t muscle your way into renewal. That approach burns bright and fails fast. The ember doesn’t respond to pressure. It responds to presence.
There was a season where I had every reason to step back. I’d pushed through too many deadlines, carried too much weight that wasn’t technically mine to hold. I remember one morning opening my laptop and feeling nothing. Not anxiety. Not frustration. Nothing. The forge in me had cooled. And that scared me more than any fire ever had.
What eventually changed wasn’t conviction. It wasn’t ambition. It wasn’t a conference or a meeting or a clever idea. It was a single intentional act. I chose to care. Not about the whole system, not about the big initiative. About one small process worth doing well. A field mapping that shouldn’t have mattered. A follow up email I could have phoned in. A student question that deserved more than a template reply.
I didn’t do it because I was inspired. I did it because even with low flame, I still believe good work is worth the heat it takes to shape.
You don’t rekindle by lighting the whole forge. You rekindle by standing near enough to remember why the heat mattered in the first place.
Today, allow yourself to tend one thing without asking it to fix the whole year. A small decision. A refinement. A moment of full presence. Not intensity. Intention. If something shifts in you, someone else may recognize it too. Let your spark speak, and let us know in the comments or DM me. What was that one thing? And how does it feel to tend to that flame?
Feel the weight of your steps. Notice which ones land firmer than the last. Every flame begins with someone willing to show up before the fire proves itself.
And that’s The Ember Walk. The forge is yours now. Go make something worth the heat.
#TheEmberWalk #TheInnovationForge #AdaptiveEnrollmentManagement #EverydayArtisan #WhereCuriosityMeetsMotion
