Jonathan Baurer
Author and life coach. Co-founder of Exploring Changes. Five books, one idea, and a truck that once broke down on the Devil’s Highway.
I traded a Colorado house for a year on the open road with my wife, Alisha, and our daughters, Hailey and Bri. Somewhere between the deserts, the breakdowns, and the long talks around a camp table, we went looking for a life that actually fit. We found it in the mountains outside Asheville, North Carolina, where I now write and coach.
From the outside, the life we left looked like the American dream. Good career, nice house, you get the picture. That was the problem. We were not broken. We had just gotten comfortable being uncomfortable, which is worse, because it is survivable.
I kept a journal that whole year. It turned into a manuscript, which I filed in Google Drive and left there for a very long time. Something I do not entirely recommend and do not entirely regret. Some things need space before you can see what they were.
Both girls are in college now. Alisha and I are empty nesters in the same mountains we crossed a country to find. Which is why this finally felt like the right moment to publish the book.
It takes changing to change. Not planning to change. Not waiting until change gets comfortable. Changing.
The thesis, if a road trip gets one
About Exploring Changes
Exploring Changes is an independent publishing house in the mountains of western North Carolina, co-founded with Alisha. It is small on purpose. We publish books about the gap between the life you have and the life you suspect is possible, and about what it actually costs to cross it.
Invitations
I am glad to join book clubs, bookstore events, library talks and podcasts. If your group is reading Like Asheville, or Better and you would like me there, in person around Asheville or on a call anywhere else, just ask.