#470: SPOTLIGHT: Joe Bruzzese

#470: Joe Bruzzese 

July 14, 2026

A Backbeat of Community

Question for Joe:  

Has there been a recent experience that unexpectedly altered your definition of success, fulfillment, or a life well lived? What about it caught you off guard?

Joe's Response: 

Sitting

Listening

A stillness of thought

Just being present for

Karin’s story

Karin was our Airbnb host for two days in the town of Ora/Aura. She insisted on both picking us up from the train station and returning us there even though the apartment was less than a 10-minute walk.

As we sat with Karin, waiting for our train's arrival, she started telling her story. 

A childhood in a small town on the Italian / Austrian border where presence is something felt between neighbors. Lived in the way they share stories just as they share olives, wine and apple juice pressed from the family’s orchard. There is an undercurrent of interdependence in Karin’s town that she didn’t fully see or understand until she left and returned years later as a thirty-something. 

Karin shared, “We have all we need here. We need so little. Do you understand?”

She asked, “Why do so many people work and work and leave so little time in their lives to be with others; to enjoy what the world has given them? We don’t need so much. Do you understand?”

Yes, I’m beginning to. 

Karin, thank you for sharing a few moments of your life to help me see what has been present and yet missing, from my life. 

The idea that I might have stumbled onto a person and a story halfway around the world sounds romantic, but it has me wondering:

How often am I missing what might have been an unexpected moment of insight right outside my front door?

Joe and Tristan this month outside of Anchorage, AK