Welcome. 👋

Every two weeks, I share reflections and curated links on meaningful work, living intentionally, and other topics that interest me.

For compliance reasons, Beyond the Cove will no longer include investment views, mine or anyone else's, or curated links to other content. And as always, nothing here should be considered an investment recommendation.

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? See past issues and subscribe here.

The Beep

The high-pitched mechanical staccato started a little after one a.m.

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep. Five short bursts. Then nothing.

Long enough to wake me up, but too short to locate the source. So I waited. And waited.

Forty-five minutes later, another one woke me up. Still couldn’t find where it was coming from. Irritated, I fell back to sleep.

Maybe ninety minutes later, another one. Then again, after another twenty minutes. No pattern to prepare me. And still, no source I could place.

I got up and turned off the new wireless keyboard. I lay back down. The beep returned.

I got up, unplugged the wireless router, then plugged it back in. I lay back down. The beep returned.

I got up and unplugged the computer. I lay back down. The beep returned.

I got up and removed the single battery from my alarm clock. That could never have been the cause. The beep returned.

Liza had already moved to the guest room. I stayed. Stubbornness, mostly. I hoped the next interval would be the last. It did not stop.

I know what I should have done. Even at the time, I knew I should have turned on the light and searched every corner of the room. Pull things off shelves. Open the closet. Find the source. Fix it or move it. Sleep.

But I did not do that. Instead, I lay in the dark and waited for the problem to resolve itself.

In the morning, on a shelf on the other side of the room, I found a wireless humidity sensor with a low battery. This small device, whose entire job is to tell you when it needs attention, was telling me it needed attention.

The sensor was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.

I was the one who wasn't.

The honest version of last night isn't that I couldn't find the beep.

The honest version is that I wouldn't get out of bed, turn on the light, and just deal with it.

The difficult conversation. The workout. Or this unwritten essay.

So today I’m tired. That’s on me.

The sensor is back on its shelf with a fresh battery, quiet for now.

Some night I'll be lying in the dark again, listening to a new beep from a place I haven't thought to look.

We'll see whether anything I told myself this morning still holds.

And a Farewell Photo...