Prefer to read or listen?

For this very first Saguaro Sunday, you can now experience the reflection in whichever format works best for you.

📖 Read the full blog post below if you’d like to take your time and reflect at your own pace.

🎥 Prefer to listen? Watch the YouTube version, where I share this week’s reflections in a more conversational format and talk through the story behind Blooming Saguaro.

Whether you choose to read, watch, or both, I hope this first Saguaro Sunday encourages you to slow down, reflect, and think about your own week.

Part 1: Welcome to Saguaro Sunday 🌵

Welcome to Blooming Saguaro and to our very first Saguaro Sunday!

My hope is that as you read, you’ll also reflect on your own week. Maybe you’ll grab a journal, open the Notes app on your phone, or simply pause for a few moments to think. If you’re comfortable, I’d also love for you to share your reflections in the comments so we can continue learning from one another!

Saguaro Sunday is our weekly opportunity to slow down. It’s a chance to practice gratitude, celebrate what went well, acknowledge where we can grow, and reflect on what we learned. It’s also a time to look ahead and ask ourselves: “What do I want to learn this week? How do I want to bloom a little more?”

Why the Saguaro?

When I moved to Phoenix nearly ten years ago, I was immediately drawn to two symbols of the desert: the phoenix and the saguaro.

The phoenix reminds us that we can rise again after hardship. The saguaro reminds us that growth takes time.

Saguaros can live for more than 150 years. They spend decades growing before they produce their iconic arms, and some never grow arms at all. They survive long periods of drought by storing water when it’s available, and over the course of their lives they become a source of food and shelter for countless other living things.

I love that metaphor.

Like the saguaro, we’re always growing. Sometimes our growth is obvious, and sometimes it’s happening quietly beneath the surface. We learn, adapt, and endure difficult seasons. We gather what we need so we can continue growing, and hopefully, one day, we can use what we’ve learned to serve and encourage others.

There’s another fact about saguaros that has always stuck with me. Here in Arizona, they’re protected. You can’t simply cut one down or move it without permission because they’re recognized as something valuable and worth preserving. I think people deserve that same kind of care. Each of us is worthy of patience, protection, and of the time it takes to grow.

That’s what Blooming Saguaro is all about.

Part 2: 🌵This Week’s Gratitude 

As always, I am grateful for my family. For their love and support. I’m grateful too for my friends. For their companionship, support, and good conversations. Of course also for my job, my home, Coco, and for life in general!  I get to be here and learn every day. Isn’t that so exciting?!

Part 3: 🌵 This Week’s Bloom: Start Before You’re Ready

If I had to sum up this week in one sentence, it would be this: Start before you’re ready.

Originally, I planned to launch Blooming Saguaro on Monday. Monday feels like the “right” day to start something new, doesn’t it? A fresh week, a clean slate.

But Monday came and went. It was busy, and before I knew it, my perfect launch day had slipped away.

For a moment, I thought about waiting another week. Instead, I started on Tuesday. It wasn’t the plan, but I’m so glad I did.

A while ago, I watched a video that completely changed how I think about starting over. The creator (and I wish I could link the video now) suggested thinking about our days in blocks instead of as one long success or failure.

Maybe your morning didn’t go the way you hoped. Maybe you skipped your workout, ate something you didn’t plan to, or procrastinated on an important project. That doesn’t mean the entire day is ruined. You can begin again in the afternoon or the evening. Every moment gives you another opportunity to choose differently!

I love that idea because it reminds me that we don’t have to wait for Monday, the first of the month, New Year’s Day, or the “perfect” moment.

We can begin now.

That lesson carried me through this entire week. Launching Blooming Saguaro has also challenged me to let go of perfectionism.

When I was teaching online, I spent so much energy trying to make everything perfect. I wore makeup every day, spent hours refining my lessons, and worried constantly about how I came across on camera. Eventually, something shifted.

I realized that my students didn’t need perfection. They needed someone who showed up prepared, cared about them, and loved teaching. Over time, I found my rhythm and I created systems, built lesson templates, and stopped feeling like every class had to be flawless. I even stopped feeling like I had to wear makeup every day. I still enjoy it, of course, the creativity and artistry of it, but I no longer used it to hide or to give me confidence.

This week reminded me of that lesson all over again. You’ve seen me this week with no makeup, messy hair, and tired after work. The lighting wasn’t always perfect, thee edits weren’t always polished, and I was just figuring things out as I went.

And honestly? I think that’s exactly how Blooming Saguaro should begin. I’d rather show up imperfectly than wait forever for perfection. Because that’s how we learn, grow, and how we bloom.

Part 4.1: 🌵This Week’s Wonder – Rapid-fire Edition!

Below is a list of things I learned this week just rapid-fire bullet points in no particular order. Remember to check out the Resources Library for links to things that I mention here, or in my social media videos!

 I learned:

• How to use Power Automate at work to send emails with personalized content and attachments.
• How to use Capcut on my phone and computer
• How to film vertically using my phone, connected to my computer, with OPS
• How to train Coco to start doing a spin
• How to make oven roasted corn
• That weight/strength training isn’t just for building a body that you’re aesthetically pleased with, but so that as you age, you can continue to move your body with ease. Everyday movements like squatting and going up the stairs, standing up, reaching up high etc
• Why the Japanese birth rate is declining and how it’s a preview of what is also happening in other countries, including the US
• That being a “b-word” or being direct is ok because it helps us protect ourselves. We don’t need to put up with people being passive aggressive. We can kindly, but firmly, tell others how we should be treated. 
• Suppressed anger can lead to autoimmune diseases. 
• How to set boundaries (ongoing thing I am learning!) I recommend this creator called Kami Orange, author of Say the Thing. Sometimes, you need to speak up for yourself even when it feels uncomfortable!
• How men can deal with trauma in healthy ways. I saw a TikTok by a creator and while it was aimed at men, it’s great advice for all. For example, if the trauma is having had an absent father, one might feel like one needs to prove one’s worth, but instead we need to grieve what we didn’t have and provide it for ourselves. To do that in a healthy way, we can find a mentor that is helpful. The creator went over these common traumas step-by-step with a slide and visuals that can help one understand these abstract concepts in a more practical way and how they actually do have a way to be healed. I don’t know if he’s a mental health professional, but I still appreciate the message and I hope more men, and all people, hear stuff like this too. Trauma doesn’t have to define you.
• About Ashley St. Clair, her experience being an ex-MAGA influencer, and being with Elon Musk. Please, do look into this!

One topic that I continuously ponder – Tradwives:

• This one is going to be controversial, but I know that it’s important to talk about. I know that this way of life can quickly become dangerous, and young women need to keep their eyes open and not fall prey to an ideology that, while seemingly innocuous, is actually a recipe for their own oppression and exploitation. I keep up with testimonials every week from women who have made it to the other side of this ideology. This topic is also personal to me because when I was younger, I was involved in a religion that pushed this rhetoric, and even back then, I could see how it negatively affected some of the women that participated in it. 
• Please don’t misunderstand me. Homemaking and being a stay-at-home mom is absolutely a noble way of life, but women still need to be careful and make sure they’re protected. God forbid something happens to her husband, or that he turns out to be abusive, or that he cheats and leaves her with no way to sustain herself. Women must protect themselves by staying informed, educated, understanding their finances, and making sure that they are not giving their lives to servitude while their own health deteriorates. Again, check out my Resources Library for more on this topic!

Part 4.2: 🌵This Week’s Wonder – Fear, Love, and Acceptance

One of the things I’ve been pondering this week is the role fear plays in our lives. Fear isn’t inherently bad. In many ways, it’s a gift. It helps keep us safe, warns us of danger, and reminds us to be cautious when we need to be.

But I’ve also been thinking about how easily fear can be manipulated.

Whether it’s politics, the news, social media, or even the people around us, fear can become a powerful tool for creating suspicion, anger, and division. Whenever someone’s message depends on making us afraid of another group of people, I think it’s worth slowing down and asking questions.

That’s one of the reasons I want Blooming Saguaro to be a welcoming community. We won’t all think the same, believe the same, or come from the same backgrounds, and that’s okay. In fact, I think we have the most to learn from people whose experiences are different from our own. We can only create more unity from learning from each other

As I was driving to church this morning, these thoughts were already on my mind. Then, to my surprise, Father Tom’s homily centered on many of the same ideas.

He spoke about hospitality. He shared stories from his own life. How a young man discerning religious life and his family welcomed him into their home and even gave him their own bed. Father Tom also shared how at the beginning of his time serving in Chicago and still learning Spanish, members of the Mexican community welcomed him into their homes and patiently helped him feel like he belonged.

Now, years later, he speaks Spanish fluently and so beautifully. During our bilingual Mass, in the Spanish portion of his homily, he said something that really stayed with me:

“We live in a world where fear of the stranger is very strong, and Christ wants to teach us that if we are living the values of the Kingdom of God…then there is always room to welcome others—to encounter another person with the trust that they, too, are a son or daughter of God and deserve that welcome. Imagine if everyone in the world lived thinking, ‘In every person I meet, there is Christ.’ How different our world would be.”

He went on to say that we’re invited to welcome not only guests into our homes, but also people whose ideas differ from our own. We won’t agree on everything, but every person is still deserving of respect, dignity, and a brotherly embrace.

One line from his English homily struck me just as deeply:

“The invitation is to reflect on those moments when we want to reject others or create division. Division is a sign that the evil one is at work… Let us allow God’s word to take root in us so that our hearts and our arms will be open.”

Whether you’re religious or not, I think there’s wisdom in that message. If we strip away the spiritual language, we’re left with something deeply human: Fear and division are rarely where growth begins.

Curiosity does.

Listening does.

Hospitality does.

Love, acceptance, and genuine human connection have a way of building bridges where fear would rather build walls.

That’s the kind of community I hope Blooming Saguaro becomes. A place where curiosity is stronger than certainty, where questions matter more than assumptions, and where people from different backgrounds can learn from one another with respect.

Because if we’re going to bloom, I don’t think we can do it alone.

Part 5: 🌵 Next Week’s Growth

As I look ahead to this coming week, my biggest goal is to continue building Blooming Saguaro in a way that’s sustainable.

This first week has reminded me that creating something meaningful takes time. There will always be things to refine, systems to build, and lessons to learn. But I don’t want to wait until everything is perfect before continuing. I want this to become part of my life as a  rhythm of learning, reflecting, and growing alongside all of you.

The truth is… this feels like where I was meant to be all along, and I’m excited to see where this journey leads.

On a smaller scale, I also have a few personal goals for the week. I’d love to finish reading The Guncle, continue teaching Coco to spin, and keep learning at work as we prepare for a new school year. I also hope to create more guides and resources that make life a little easier for my coworkers.

Now it’s your turn.

🌵 What are you grateful for this week?

🌵 What did you learn?

🌵 What’s something you’ve been wondering about lately?

🌵 How do you want to bloom a little more this week?

🌵 Question of the Week: What is one thing you’ve been waiting to start because you don’t feel ready?

I’d genuinely love to hear your reflections. My hope is that this becomes more than a blog or a social media account. Instead, I hope that this becomes a place where we learn from one another.

Thank you for spending part of your Sunday with me and for being here at the very beginning of Blooming Saguaro! Whether you’ve been following my journey since One Per Week or you’re discovering this community for the first time, I’m so glad you’re here.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

Until then…

Learn a bit each day. Bloom a little more. 🌵