“My name is Laurie Haller. I’m 45, living in LA with my husband and three kids (5 to 14). I always thought motherhood would be my legacy. Raising the next generation is important work, after all. But when I became a mother, I felt abandoned by the illusions I had bet my happiness on. If I’m being honest, I didn’t find my “life’s work” on the other side of pregnancy. Fourteen years in, I laugh that no one tells you how much of parenting is meeting the unrelenting needs of tiny, irrational humans—for decades. I don’t like to cook, I rarely leave the house, and I somehow ended up with three kids in club sports. Not exactly the dream scenario. So I asked myself, “Now what?” But this time, I was a little mad—like Dorothy pulling back the curtain in Oz. If not the husband, the kids, the white picket fence… then what? I dove into the meaning of life, obsessively reading, writing, and listening. And while happiness looks different for everyone, one word kept showing up: intention. To live with intention. To think, move, and breathe with it. I define intention as the sum of awareness + action. When we become aware—of ourselves, our beliefs, the universal laws of life—and pair that awareness with action, life becomes the gift we were promised. And so, the one-mile was born. Since September 24, 2023, I’ve walked (or jogged) one mile every day to show the power of small, intentional actions. Rain or shine, home or away, sick or healthy—I haven’t missed a day. Because our deepest peace doesn’t come from success, material things, or the love of others (not in any lasting way). It comes from a deliberate relationship with our own lives. I’ve since become a licensed life coach and written my first book (forthcoming). I’ve had two more children, buried my best friend, rebuilt my marriage, and recently lost our home in the Palisades Fire. Life doesn’t stop being life. But when you trust it, when you meet it with intention, peace and joy exist—even in the heartbreak. They say, “Your kids don’t need a perfect mother, they need a happy one.” I’ll take it further: You don’t need a perfect life. You need a happy one. Continues in comments…