Here's the story....

On a hot April evening in 2016 sitting on the back porch of my parents home in Florida, my dad asked me a question. Though an extraordinary human, Dad wasn't one to ask people their opinions or thoughts on....well, anything. The fact that he was asking me a question made me listen. At the age of 87 and recently remarried after the death of my mom 3 years earlier, he asked, "What do you think the most defining moments have been in your life?" 

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I didn't have an answer. Partially because I was shocked he asked me a question, but mostly because I'd never thought about it. So I asked him the same question back. He told me of walking into a coat store in Philadelphia in the 1950s and on a handshake, accepting a job offered to him by a friend's boss whom he just happened to start chatting with. That handshake launched a long and successful career for my dad and my mom and in turn, life for my sister and me (we were both adopted and in foster care as babies). 

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In truth, Dad had many defining moments, as we all do and his is a nice example of a positive defining moment for a white male in the United States but for many, many people, myself included, defining moments are events out of our control and often traumatic. I believe that we have defining moments all of the time and the most significant ones are those that not only affect us as individuals but the people around us; family, friends, communities, and sometimes, the world. Our experiences do not happen in a vacuum, and it's the reason I've called this podcast OUR Defining Moments.

My hope for this podcast is to help people feel connected to themselves and others through their defining moments whether tragic, humorous, joyful, minor, or life-changing. We all have a story and something to share and we're not alone in these no matter how much we think we are. What is YOUR defining moment?