Dear Koffeemocha friends,
Some journeys shift your surroundings.
Others shift your soul.
My recent trip to Egypt did both, not with comfort, but with confrontation.
It stripped me of ease and gave me clarity in return.
This wasn’t a vacation.
It was what Marc Freedman calls an “encore”, a bold reentry into life’s arena, where renewal comes not in spite of age, but because of it.
Like the Nile, which floods and recedes only to give life again, I too was beginning —not over, but deeper.
What is the Encore Mindset?
It’s the belief that the later chapters of life are not a winding down, but a bold return to curiosity, courage, and self-expansion.
Just as the Nile renews itself with each flood, we too can choose to rise again with purpose — to challenge ourselves not despite age or fatigue, but because of it.
Egypt invited me into that mindset, again.
Not with ease, but with endurance.
Arthur C. Brooks reminds us that the second half of life invites a different kind of strength: one built on wisdom, not ambition. It’s a time to shift from accumulation to contribution, from productivity to presence.
In that spirit, I began my encore journey in May 2023 when I retired and launched Koffeemocha: a platform for personal growth, strategic risk-taking, and reflective writing. But it wasn’t until June 2024 — during my cross-country move from California to New York — that I publicly declared this shift. That journey, both geographic and symbolic, marked my conscious embrace of the encore: a life lived with soul, not speed.
This Wasn’t Just a Trip. It Was a Dialogue with Time.
Standing beneath the worn hieroglyphs of Karnak...
Entering tombs that had held breath for 3,000 years...
Drifting on the Nile, watching the sun trace the same arc Pharaohs once revered...
I wasn’t escaping life. I was reentering it, with older eyes and a reshaped soul.
As David Brooks writes in The Second Mountain, there is a climb we begin after the valley — a climb toward meaning, connection, and surrender to something larger.
Egypt, with all its weight of time, invited me into that ascent.
If It Felt Hard, It’s Because It Mattered.
This wasn’t a curated leisure tour…
It was 100-degree heat, bumpy rides, early wakeups, and a relentless confrontation with mortality, scale, and soul.
And that was the point.
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot calls this phase the “Third Chapter”: a time for risk, passion, and creative renewal. I see now that every ounce of discomfort was a gift — a reminder that challenge is the currency of transformation.
We don’t grow by repeating ease.
We grow by re-engaging, by asking again: what matters most, now?
A Koffeemocha Moment: The Hot Balloon Ride over Luxor Just After Sunrise
One memory floats above the rest — quietly, vividly.
We woke at 3 a.m.
Crossed the Nile while the sky was still navy blue.
Waited in a hushed field as balloon canopies filled with breath and fire.
And just after the sun crested the horizon —
We rose.
Not into darkness, but into that golden hour between night and morning, when the world is still soft, and history feels newly lit.
Above us: the first warm rays of sunlight.
Below us: the awakening temples, the ribbon of the Nile, the sleeping city slowly coming alive.
Around us: silence, stillness — and a shared reverence.
It was not a thrill ride. It was a ritual of presence.
That moment didn’t ask for narration. It simply invited us to witness.
And that, too, is what Encore living is about —
not proving anything,
not checking a box,
but simply experiencing the sacred in the ordinary.
Being bold enough to rise — slowly, intentionally — with the light.
Until the next awakening,
Stay bold. Stay open.
Encore begins not at the end — but the moment you choose to rise again.
— Kefei