#108: The Cinnamon Toast Philosophy

My Grandmother's Extraordinary Approach to Ordinary Life

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Today’s Featured Uplifter: Rosemary Baker

I've been thinking lately about how we learn to be brave. Not the dramatic, headline-making kind of brave, but the everyday courage that allows us to build a beautiful life, sometimes from nothing but scraps and determination.

I made cinnamon toast today the way my grandmother taught me – waiting for the top to brown just right, then flipping it over so the butter drips down into the sugar instead of making the bottom soggy. (A small but transformative detail that makes all the difference. Please try it.) As I waited for that perfect caramelization to happen, I couldn't help but smile at how her wisdom shows up in these tiny moments, even two weeks after her passing at 95.

For those who've followed me, you've heard me mention my grandmother Rosemary Baker countless times. When I shared the news of her passing, hundreds of you reached out, many expressing shock that someone so vibrant could ever stop moving. But that's just it – she hasn't. Her voice, her ways of seeing and being in the world, continue to ripple outward through me, through this community, through everyone she touched.

Today, I'm sharing something really special to me – her actual voice, her story in her own words. Because while I've spent years interviewing remarkable women about courage, my first and greatest teacher was this extraordinary woman who adopted me at six and showed me what it means to turn challenge into creation, again and again and again.

Her Courage Practice: Momentum as Medicine

My grandmother's signature practice wasn't meditation or journaling – it was momentum. "If you never sit down, you never have to get up," she'd often say. While that might sound exhausting (fair!), there's profound wisdom in her philosophy of continuous engagement with life.

This wasn't just about physical movement, though she certainly had that in spades – running well into her 90s, climbing any tree she spotted, doing headstands against empty walls, and hula hooping literally hours before she passed. Her momentum practice was about approaching every aspect of life with creativity and purpose: designing and building homes from scratch, transforming barren clay into breathtaking gardens inspired by the Kennedy compound, and waking her granddaughter (lucky me!) with breakfast in bed served on trays with fresh flowers.

The real power of her practice was how it sustained her through tremendous challenges – surviving the Great Depression as a migrant worker's daughter, battling breast cancer twice, adopting and raising me when my parents couldn't. When most people would retreat, she leaned in, finding healing through caring for others (like the nearly-frozen kitten she nursed back to health while recovering from cancer herself).

Listen to this if...

• You're wondering how to stay vibrant and engaged as you age

• You need a reminder that it's never too late to try something new

• You want to design the life of your dreams

• You want to hear how simple practices can create a remarkable life

• You're navigating grief and looking for ways to carry someone's legacy forward

Listen to more transformation stories here.

Let’s keep rising higher together.

💓 Aransas

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