Sunday Morning Café

05/27/2026

Most of us like to imagine we’re standing on solid ground.

But sometimes life asks us to find ground in the very places we’d rather avoid: illness, uncertainty, diminishment, even death.

In this week’s Sunday Morning Café reflection, I share the beginning of Mary’s story, a woman whose rare neurological diagnosis forced her to face outcomes no one wants to imagine. And yet, before surgery, she told her family she was at peace.

The question is not whether life will shake us. The question is: Where do we go to find ground when it does?

☕ Read this week’s article or listen to the podcast version. Links to both are in the comments.

05/24/2026

Spiritual masters have long taught us to contemplate the fleeting nature of life. But most of us avoid that reflection until life gives us no choice.

Mary didn’t choose her reflection on mortality. It arrived through a rare neurological illness, a frightening diagnosis, and the possibility of losing much of what made her life feel like her life.

And still, before surgery, she gathered her husband and sons to tell them she was at peace with any outcome. Including disability. Including death.

Where does such groundedness come from?

Read this week’s article or listen to the podcast version:
📖 Read: https://www.tomwagnerspeaker.com/post/i-shall-die-but-that-is-all-i-shall-do-for-death-part-one
🎧 Listen here (or wherever you get your podcasts): https://www.tomwagnerspeaker.com/podcast/episode/22605018/ep-17-smc-article-i-shall-die-but-that-is-all-i-shall-do-for-death-part-one

05/20/2026

When the fight-or-flight response gets “twitchy,” even small conflicts can feel enormous.

What if your childhood version of play has something to teach your adult nervous system?

In this week’s Sunday Morning Café reflection, I explore how playful aerobic movement can help quiet the internal alarm system, reduce stress, and strengthen resilience over time.

The invitation is simple: reach back > remember what made you feel alive > adjust it for adulthood > bring it into your current life.

☕ Enjoy this song from the Secret Sisters — and then check out the full reflection (link is in the comments).

Provided to YouTube by Redeye WorldwideLittle Again · The Secret SistersYou Don't Own Me Anymore℗ 2017 New West Records, LLCReleased on: 2017-06-09Main Arti...

05/17/2026

What kind of play made you feel alive as a child?

In this week’s Sunday Morning Café reflection, I invite you to reach back for what once felt like play and adjust it for adulthood as a practical recipe for resilience and joy.

Maybe it was pedaling. Maybe it was swimming. Maybe it was chasing a ball across a field. Maybe it was simply being outside and moving your body.

The way you played as a child may hold wisdom for the adult you are now.

☕ Explore the full reflection here: https://www.tomwagnerspeaker.com/post/how-did-you-play-when-you-were-a-child

05/13/2026

Words create worlds. They can also tear them down.

Cognitive psychology teaches us to take a step back and notice the thoughts that attend our painful emotions. You may not be able to “decide” a painful feeling away, but you can notice the conversation you’re having with yourself.

💭 When a painful emotion arrives, notice the thoughts that come with it.
💭 Ask whether those thoughts are useful, realistic, or just old shame renting space in your head.
💭 Then see if you can change the thought ever so slightly into something more spacious and true.

Explore the full reflection (link in comments).

05/11/2026

At 14, Royce Martin taught himself piano on a small keyboard on his lap in St. Louis.

A few years later, he received his first piano through Pianos for People, a St. Louis nonprofit that provides free access to pianos and music education. By 18, he was the in-house pianist at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, bringing new life to the music of the “King of Ragtime” in the very rooms where Joplin once lived.

Since then, Royce has gone on to graduate from Berklee College of Music, compose original music for projects on MAX and Hulu, and create a sound of his own: “Swagtime,” a fusion of ragtime stride, bebop, and poetic rap. In 2024, The New York Times described Royce’s pianism as “sly, relatable, and brilliant.”

But what makes Royce’s story so compelling isn’t just his talent. It’s the way he honors where he came from while continuing to push the music forward. Through his work, ragtime becomes more than music from the past. It becomes a living art form, still capable of telling new stories.

On Sunday, August 2, I will sit down with Royce for an evening of live music and conversation about resilience, creativity, roots, and the power of art to help us make meaning.

Grab your discounted early bird tickets before they’re gone. Link is in the comments.

05/10/2026

Imagine your best friend spoke to you the way you sometimes speak to yourself.

Would you let them call you names?
Would you let them shame you?
Would you let them reduce one painful moment into a whole story about your worth?

For many of us, the harshest conversations are not the ones happening around us, but within us.

In this week’s Sunday Morning Café reflection, I explore how internalized negative messages form, why self-talk matters, and how small shifts in language can help us move toward resilience and healing.

☕ Find it here: https://www.tomwagnerspeaker.com/post/talking-back-to-internalized-negativity

05/06/2026

Sometimes we don’t know we’re looking for God when God finds us.

As a young man in the Navy, late at night, Larry would stand at the back of a Navy ship in the middle of the ocean. Here’s how described to me:

“Looking up at the stars and the bioluminescence of the fantail [the wake left by the boat], it put everything in perspective. I did feel like God was there. Especially at night. There’s a dark that’s darker than dark. The ship is in the middle of the ocean. But I always felt so comfortable. It was very calming. It was then that I felt there’s something healing in me.”

☕ Read this week’s article or listen to the podcast version. Links to both are in the comments.

05/03/2026

How does someone heal after experiencing profound trauma?

In this week’s Sunday Morning Café reflection, I share Larry’s story—from a childhood marked by violence to unexpected moments of healing at a quarry… and later, on the back of a Navy ship, where he found himself compelled to “look up.”

This piece explores a deeper idea: that the human spirit comes ready-made with a source of Healing Presence—something that can’t be taken, even after years of damage.

Read this week’s article or listen to the podcast version:
📖 Read: https://www.tomwagnerspeaker.com/post/unbroken-part-three
🎧 Listen here (or wherever you get your podcasts): https://www.tomwagnerspeaker.com/podcast/episode/24c1acce/ep-16-smc-article-unbroken-part-three

04/29/2026

Object relations psychology describes the process by which children “introject,” or psychologically take in, their caregivers into their developing psyche.

A child is able to take the raw material of unconditional love and weave it into a “secure psychological base” from which they can construct a life and identity in the world.

In this week’s Sunday Morning Café article, I share how it was from this secure base within—crafted from the psychological calcium and oxygen of his Aunt Rebecca’s love—that Larry was able to disprove his stepfather’s premonition: “You’ll never graduate high school.”

“The hell I won’t,” Larry whispered to himself on the day he took his last beating and ran away from home to finish his senior year and meet his destiny…

☕ Read this week’s article or listen to the podcast version. Links to both are in the comments.