You don't find community — you create it. Shelly shares the story of the prayer call that almost didn't happen, and the lesson midlife taught her about going first.
Friend, I want to talk to you about something that has carried me through the hardest year of my life — something that didn't exist three years ago, and something I almost didn't start because I was scared, tired, and a little bit hurt.
In this episode, I'm sharing the full story of how this podcast came to be — including the season I lost my voice trying to be strategic, the prompt from the Lord to come back to my roots, and the prayer call I didn't want to start that has now been carrying me for two and a half years.
This is the lesson midlife has taught me, and the one I want to leave you with: you don't find your community. You create it.
In this episode, I share:
The most quoted line from this episode:
"You don't find community. You create it."
One question to sit with this week:
What do I crave? A prayer group? A walking buddy? A monthly dinner with friends? A book club that actually talks about the book? Name it — and then take one small step this week to start building it.
Mentioned in this episode:
🙏 The Rooted Gathering — A free weekly prayer call for women in midlife. Every Tuesday at 8am MT / 9am CT on Zoom. 30 minutes. 15 minutes of praises and testimonies, 15 minutes of prayer requests. Come as you are — camera on or off. Grab the Zoom link at midlifemadesimplepodcast.com
📱 Follow Shelly on Instagram: @shellyniehaus — where I'm documenting the next chapter (caregiving, empty nesting, building Fortivus with Mark, and everything in between)
A quick note, friend: Midlife Made Simple is going on a summer pause after next week's episode. I'll share more next week — but I wanted you to know now so you're not caught off guard. The Rooted Gathering is how we keep this community going between seasons. I'd love for you to join us there.
Timestamps:
Approximate — adjust to your actual audio