The Sacred Yes: What My Mom Taught Me About Courage, Curiosity, and Starting Again

Episode 152

In our Sacred Yes series, we’ve been exploring what it means to choose courage, curiosity, and joy in the second half of life. Who better to join the conversation than the woman who quietly taught Jen those very lessons from the beginning?

In this deeply personal episode, Jen calls home from MeCamp to check in with her mom, Jana. While Jana was originally supposed to be lakeside in Ontario with Jen this week, a last-minute discovery by Jen’s dad, Larry, revealed that Jana’s passport had expired back in April. Instead of catching up by the water, mother and daughter connected remotely—and thankfully, they hit record so we could all benefit from Jana’s wisdom.

This warm, funny, generation-spanning conversation explores the stories, fears, and freedoms we inherit. Jana reflects on growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, the cultural scripts of the time that told young women they couldn’t quite “make it” on their own”, and how her own mother (who died when Jana was just 33) refused to let her carry fear. Jen and Jana trace how that spirit of fearlessness rolled down through the family, for better and occasionally for worse. They dive into the gifts passed through motherhood: resilience, faith, independence, and the confidence to keep saying “yes” to new adventures, no matter how scary they seem.

Jana shares insights from 55 years of marriage and raising four resilient children in a home where faith was central and failure was never a dealbreaker. She also discusses her decades as an educator and the joy of discovering new passions after retirement.

We also talk about reinvention after 75—the “yeses” Jana has given herself lately, from traveling with her best friend to opening her own bank account (so she never has to explain a $78 lunch again!). Jana closes with a permission slip for women in midlife: it is never too late to try something new, and bravery is simply doing it even when you’re afraid.

Whether you’re navigating an empty nest, caring for aging parents, rebuilding after loss, or simply wondering what this next chapter could hold, this conversation offers the kind of gentle mentoring so many of us wish we could still receive from our own mothers. Because, perhaps the greatest gift a parent can give isn’t certainty—it’s the confidence to believe that no matter what happens, you can always get back up and begin again.