Roadside Notes

Grief Is the Echo of Love | Roadside Notes — A Faith and Good Courage Journal Reading | Ep37

Most of us have sat across from someone who was carrying grief and didn't know what to say. This episode begins at a diner counter with a man who'd lost his wife the previous winter and said something that stopped the morning cold. "Everyone keeps telling me the grief will pass. I'm not sure I want it to." That one sentence opens a quiet conversation about what grief actually is and why we've been thinking about it wrong. Grief isn't a problem to be solved or a phase to push through. It's the echo of a love that had nowhere left to go. The pain we carry after losing someone isn't a sign that something is broken. It's proof that something real and irreplaceable once lived. This episode sits with that truth gently, without rushing past it. You'll hear stories about the little things that stay with us after someone is gone, the humming in the kitchen, the hand reached for crossing a street, the habits that outlast the person. And somewhere in those small details, a different way of understanding grief begins to take shape. 📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/21/grief-is-the-echo-of-love/ [https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/21/grief-is-the-echo-of-love/] 🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain. #FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

Don't Be The First To Let Go | Roadside Notes — A Faith and Good Courage Journal Reading | Ep36

There is a quiet idea behind the way some character performers at Disney parks approach a child's hug. They don't end it. The child decides when it's over. Whether it's official policy or simply something passed along doesn't matter much. What matters is the heart behind it. You never know how much that child might need that hug. This week's Roadside Notes entry explores what happens when we stop rushing kindness. The world moves fast, and most of us have learned to keep pace with it. Conversations get shortened. Encouragement turns into quick advice. Presence gets replaced by schedule. But real kindness sometimes asks for something different. It asks us to stay a little longer, listen a little deeper, and let the moment last as long as it needs to. Don't Be The First To Let Go is a reflection on the kind of grace that rarely makes headlines but is often the thing people remember years later. The person who stayed. The moment that wasn't rushed. The kindness that didn't need a reason to keep going. 📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/14/dont-be-the-first/ [https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/14/dont-be-the-first/] 🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain. #FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

Do Not Grow Weary | Roadside Notes — A Faith and Good Courage Journal Reading | Ep35

There's a kind of tiredness that doesn't come from lack of sleep. It comes from planting without seeing anything come up. From doing good work quietly and wondering if it's landing anywhere. From showing up day after day in a season that doesn't seem to be turning yet. That's what this entry is about. A conversation in a Route 66 diner with an old farmer who'd been planting longer than he'd been harvesting said something that stayed with me. He wasn't discouraged. He wasn't measuring. He was simply doing what the season called for. Paul said the same thing in Galatians 6:9 in a way that's less a pep talk and more a steady hand on the shoulder. There will be a harvest. The season belongs to something larger than your timeline. Some seeds belong to the next pair of hands. Some harvests are gathered by people you'll never meet. This episode is for the ones who are still planting anyway. 📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/07/do-not-grow-weary/ [https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/07/do-not-grow-weary/] 🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain. #FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

Center of Attention Without Being Seen | Roadside Notes — A Faith and Good Courage Journal Reading | Ep34

There is a line Christopher uses with couples when he is deciding whether he is the right officiant for their wedding. He tells them he has the toughest job of anyone in the room. He has to be the center of attention without being seen, and he has to do all the talking without being heard. It gets a laugh. But he means every word. This entry sits with that idea alongside Matthew 6, the passage that doesn't condemn giving but questions the audience. It asks an honest question: when we share stories of kindness, when we encourage others to act, are we teaching or performing? Are we illuminating the path or spotlighting ourselves? That line is worth examining. Quietly. Regularly. Without flinching. The goal isn't invisibility. It's proper positioning. Let the love shine. Let the kindness become normal. Let the idea outlast the name of the person who shared it. 📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/04/30/center-of-attention/ [https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/04/30/center-of-attention/] 🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain. #FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

Gratitude Reciprocates | Roadside Notes — A Faith and Good Courage Journal Reading | Ep33

Most of the time you leave something kind and you never hear what happened next. A note tucked under a sugar dispenser. A tip that was a little more than usual. A quiet prayer in a cracked asphalt parking lot. You walk away and the story moves without you. That is the way it is supposed to work. This week's entry from the Roadside Notes journal is about a moment I didn't expect. A waitress on Route 66 who recognized me. A note she almost threw away. And a battery that got paid for by grace she couldn't explain. I didn't orchestrate any of it. I just got to hear about it. And that, it turns out, is a gift of its own. Gratitude reciprocates not because we design it to, but because something received with a thankful heart refuses to stop moving. Sometimes you get to hear a little of the harvest. Not to take credit. Just to stay humble and keep going. 📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/04/23/gratitude-reciprocates [https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/04/23/gratitude-reciprocates] Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain. #FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives