There’s still good here. Even in this.

A note from Jon, founder of EMPOWEAR

Why these words matter to me.

For years, I’ve talked about living with an “attitude of gratitude.” To me, it meant choosing to see the good, speaking words that encourage, and celebrating the blessings all around us.

Then long COVID changed the life I knew. I hadn’t really understood what living with a chronic illness could take from a person — how it can wipe out energy, clarity, and the ability to create the way you always had — until I was living it. For more than three decades, my security net had been simple: no matter what happened outside me — losses, business setbacks, whatever — nobody could take my mind or my ability to turn ideas into something real. When this hit, it disrupted both the outside and the inside. Suddenly I was starting over.

I still believed in gratitude. But now I was learning what it meant to choose it while life was unresolved — with fear and waiting and confusion in the room — without pretending that what I’d lost didn’t matter. Reflecting on YĀDÂ gave that practice a deeper meaning.

My reflection began in faith. The reminder I carry into everyday life is that gratitude can live alongside what’s hard — including seasons when your capacity changes and you’re rebuilding. I can notice what’s good, appreciate the people beside me, and leave room for possibility without having everything figured out.

I’m sharing this so that if you’re living through something that has changed the life you knew — in your body, your work, your relationships, or your sense of what you can still do — you feel seen, not pitied. You’re not alone. That’s what I want these words to carry.

Founder of EMPOWEAR