“The Spaces Between Us” explores how the meaning of family and belonging has shifted—from the intimate bonds that once defined our lives to the vast, impersonal systems that shape them today. Through personal reflection and insights from Yuval Noah Harari and Adam Grant, Chris Monnette asks what real connection still looks like in a connected but lonely world.

Reflections on aging, accepting what is while discovering what still can be, and finding purpose in life’s second act.

On a backpacking trip in Colorado’s Indian Peaks, a friend taught me differential equations on a log, and I tried to capture the Milky Way with fading eyesight. I didn’t bring home a photo, but I rediscovered the quiet joy of learning and the freedom of what I still can do.

The Mind I Choose I like to think of myself as someone with an expansive perspective, someone who tries to stay open and curious. But I can catch myself shrinking fast, especially when it comes to politics. Over my life I’ve probably voted Republican more often than Democrat, but in recent elections I’ve moved much farther to the left. I’m quick to pin unflattering labels on today’s Republicans, dismissing their motives outright. Some of those criticisms may be fair at times.

A message from a former colleague stirred emotions I thought were long behind me. It reminded me how easily old scars can ache—and how acceptance, not reactivity, is what frees us.

Beauty isn’t something to capture or measure. It’s something to notice and feel: a quiet forest, a sailboat on the water, a piece of music that lingers in the heart. These are the moments that stay with us.

What does it mean to be "useful” once the career milestones are behind you? For most of my life, my value was measured in numbers — revenue, deals closed, jobs created. These days, my usefulness shows up in quieter ways: walking with my wife through life’s changes, encouraging a friend, or sharing words that spark reflection. This post explores learning to fill my own well first so I can keep giving to others, and discovering that purpose can be found in small, intentional ac

What a worn rock taught me about acceptance, peace, and the search for something deeper I picked up a stone last week. It sat half-submerged in the creek that runs through the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center near Ward, Colorado, where I had been camping alone as part of a weeklong silent solo retreat. Much of those five days “on the land” were spent beside that creek: listening to the water, feeling the breeze on my face, watching the aspens sway above me, each one re

A Story About Suffering, Accepting, and the Choice to Begin Again I reached out to a friend the other day to see how he was doing. We’d previously talked about a health concern he was dealing with. It didn’t sound life-threatening or life-changing at the time; just something worrisome. Something that needed to be understood and resolved. His two-sentence reply stopped me cold. He said he was learning that it was part of something far more serious than I had expected or imagin

What is consciousness? Is it fundamental or emergent? Maybe the only thing that matters is that we ask the question.

In my October 22 post I shared that I had started working on a new novel,  Begin Again . Ninety days later the key characters in my story have come to life in my mind, and they are slowly making their way to the page. Unlike in my memoir, Seeing Clearly , where I knew the characters in real life, in my novel, I had to create them from thin air, or at least that’s what I thought I was doing. With each iteration of the central characters in my novel I found that they became mor

Today, there are tens of millions of voters who are celebrating a victory, and tens of millions are mourning to various degrees.

Beginning Again has been a theme in my life. That is true for us all, isn't it? What in this world is truly permanent other than change?