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Joél

@cjoellopez

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🇲🇽🇬🇹
🌹 Chicago · 26.2

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highly recommend going to Mexico City with one of your besties, dining at Michelin-starred restaurants, walking 16k steps a day, having pancitos with every cafecito, and admiring all the beauty of your culture 🇲🇽

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42 years. I thought I’d have it mostly figured out by now, but honestly, I’m still filling in a lot of blanks. That being said, I’ve nailed a few things down…

The cliche quotes are mostly all true. Those signs your aunt hangs on the kitchen wall that say “Bless this mess” or “Live, Laugh, Love” or “Live, Laugh, Lasagna”…that John Lennon quote that goes something like “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”, or Dolly Parton’s famous quote, “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life” - they’re cliches for a reason…because they’re all true.

I genuinely love the game of business. Creating something out of nothing. Building brands, writing songs, opening stores, taking photos, art direction…I love chasing down a dream to a fault, probably.

And if you’re like me, you get impatient in the middle of the process, looking for the payoff, the ‘good’ part. We forget that…THE PROCESS IS LITERALLY OUR LIFE. That IS the good part. Like that cliche line we’ve all heard before - “The journey is the destination.”

What if we lived like we’ve already arrived? Like today is the good part. Like “today is all we are promised” (spoiler alert - it is). Maybe our meals would taste even better. We’d probably hug a little longer. Stop and take in a mountain view for an extra minute. Take more chances. Laugh louder. Call our friends and family more, because they actually won’t always be around. Optimize less. Pray with more sincerity. Ask deeper questions. Let go of grudges faster. Look for more ways to make the mundane special.

At a certain point you realize that what made your life great wasn’t actually the success or the awards or the paychecks or the purchases (as nice as those are) - it’s the people (and dogs) you get to run alongside, and the moments you share with them.

And while that should never be a reason to stop dreaming or doing, it’s a great reminder to stop waiting for the good part, and realize that today IS the good part - and if it isn’t, you have every opportunity to change it.

Cover photo: @scottcbakken
Run club photos: @maxxjrdn

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Saturday night with our queen @oliviadeano

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And you know what? Love really is never wasted when it’s shared 🤍

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30✨

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january - live laugh love

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Merry Christmas from Chicago xo

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26.2 miles (42 KM), lots of memories, and all the things I ate in Chicago after the marathon. Huge thanks to everyone who sent in voice memos for me to listen to while I ran - that was the best kind of fuel (I laughed. I cried). And big thanks to everyone who supported my fundraiser. Together we raised $3,780 USD with @worldvision, and we provided clean drinking water for over 75 people for life (sending each of you a thank you gift soon). One major marathon down. 6 to go. New York next? Who’s coming with?

#chicago #chicagomarathon2025

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To all my millennials out there, have a DOPE DAY! 💪🏼🤣

#memories #kalimba #outofthebox #tlotv

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Did someone say Senior Designer? 🤝🏽

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30‼️ the verse of the day beautifully articulates the past 10 years and my feelings about this decade. “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”

Any thing good you see in me is Jesus. He’s such a keeper. I can look back and see his faithfulness all over my 20’s. I’m so grateful to have died to my own will long ago. His ways are higher, better and truly just more cool and fun than anything I could dream up!

Thank you for the all the kind messages, love y’all!!🤍

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start of summer 🌳🍓🌞🍵🍞🩵🧀

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