Well. I didn’t see it coming. I tried to shake it off, but it stuck.
Over and over, I explored it. I tried to find a connection to the awkwardness I felt when I looked at it and said it out loud, but none came.
It was mine and while I didn’t know what to do with it, I at least accepted I had 12 months to figure it out.
You see, at the start of 2026, I completed Kristen Lisanti‘s worksheet to find my noble intention for the year. I’ve used it a few years and found the practice expanding in terms of how I show up as a leader and human in a complex world.
This year, however, it felt different. You see, the word that arrived – in bold letters – was vulnerable.
It landed on my page, and I just didn’t know how to feel. I remember thinking that I could just toss it and get out a new worksheet to get a better noble intention. I even looked up the definition trying to figure out why this word; nothing helpful.
But alas, I leaned into my mindfulness practice and just sat with it. Well, more like poking it with a stick so as to not get too close for fear of what would happen.
I pasted the word above my computer. I told my teams and friends. It was mine to get to know for 12 months. I accepted it, with hesitancy.
Fast Forward…
I started the year thinking vulnerability was about fixing something in me. Over time, I began to see that the word gave me permission to share more deeply, connect more authentically, and make space for the unspoken but felt emotions we all have but protect. It wasn’t about fixing but rather being.
Then my noble intention clicked – the call and path to living into this word now clear: publish “Be at Ease.” Offer up my tender spots to help others with theirs. Use this book to normalize talking about our most vulnerable moment as a human—death.
More comfortable with my noble intention, I reached out to a total stranger on LinkedIn and asked Corey L. Kennard, MACM, CPXP to read and review my book based on his podcast “Due to Expire” and work with International End-of-Life Doula Association (INELDA). He welcomed me… and wrote this… unknowingly including my noble intention…
“Emily shares one of the most sacred and meaningful journeys of anticipatory grief I have ever read. Her beautifully detailed experience that ended with the death of her father and its impact on her, her mother, and the loving and caring community at large is nothing short of a step-by-step master class on caregiving. “Be At Ease” is truly an expression of the highest form of love that a dying father can be shown by his beloved daughter, and leaves me longing for such a caring relationship during my final moments of this life. Thank you, Emily Oehler, for being so vulnerable and sharing this gift with the world!”
I hope my vulnerability helps readers see that within the thin space between life and beyond lay profound moments to be embraced… because it’s in this awkward vulnerability that faith and love fully reside.
