Who shows up when you fall?

It was my birthday a few weeks ago.

I gathered with family and close friends at a local brewery. People who've been with me since Day 1, through the hard chapters and the good ones.

We toasted life. Laughed. Ate well.

Six years in a row now. I don't ask for much on my birthday, but this is my kind of gift.

What I love most is looking around and seeing everyone talking to each other, staying for hours. Childhood friends, college friends, green building colleagues, cycling comrades. My brother. My daughters. Juneau, my labradoodle.

There's a question I keep coming back to in my forthcoming book, Regen360: Who shows up when you fall? Who notices the drop in your voice and asks, without agenda: "How are you really doing?" — and then waits for a true answer, not just "busy."

Looking around that brewery, I had my answer.

Part of a 360 life is community. I write about the idea of a Regen360 Circle: a small group of people who meet regularly, share the joy and struggles of what they're building, hold each other accountable, and refuse to let each other drown alone.

In person matters — the nervous system reads a real human looking you in the eye differently than a face on a screen.

We can't climb alone. We need a base camp and people willing to go up the mountain together. Movements don't get built in isolation. Neither does healing. Neither does shared joy. The photo above is my evidence and source of regeneration.

I'm at an age where birthdays feel less like countdowns and more like checkpoints. Am I still building something that matters? Still planting seeds that take root?

The best birthday gift you could give me: preorder Regen360 at Barnes & Noble. I need 300 preorders to get the book onto physical shelves.

Preorder Regen360 here.

Thank you for being part of my community — and for helping me celebrate another turn of the globe.

David Gottfried
Founder, U.S. & World Green Building Council
Author, Regen360
regen360.net