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Morning — Clay here.

Not too long ago, I caught myself writing a sentence I’ve written many different ways: “I didn’t mean for it to happen… it just sort of did.”
Friendships fading, health slipping, fun disappearing… not because of one big decision, but because I stopped paying attention.

Turns out, most of the things we lose in life don’t leave loudly.
They drift.

Let’s go. 🔥

If You Don’t Steer, You Drift

If you’ve read Campfire Gentleman for any length of time, you may have noticed a theme. Every few weeks, I end up writing about something that slowly slipped away.

Friendships that faded.
Health that declined.
Marriage that went stagnant.
Fun that disappeared.

And somewhere in each of those stories, there’s usually a line that sounds something like this:

“I didn’t mean for it to happen—it just sort of… did.”

I never meant to stop hanging out with friends.
I never meant to stop working out.
I never meant to stop laughing with my wife, or doing things that made me feel alive.

But somehow, I did.

It’s strange how many parts of life fade out quietly. Not in a single decision, but in the space between them. One skipped workout becomes a week. One “we’ll hang out soon” turns into a year. You don’t plan to drift—you just stop steering.

I’m sure I’ll keep writing versions of this same article over and over again, because the truth behind it doesn’t change:
If you don’t stop, look around, and intentionally adjust your direction, life will always drift toward disorder.

You can call it the frog in boiling water.
Or you can call it the second law of thermodynamics—the one that says everything naturally moves toward chaos unless energy is added back into the system.

Because that’s what happens when we live without intention: we drift.
If you don’t occasionally reintroduce purpose into the system—your habits, your relationships, your health, your joy—you’ll eventually look up and wonder, “What happened?”

It’s not a moral failure. It’s physics.
And the good news is, it’s reversible… if you’re willing to pause, take stock, and start steering again.

Quote of the Week

Sometimes, the only difference between becoming better or worse is whether we bothered to notice the drift.

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When Your Body Says “Not Today”

I don’t get sick very often anymore. I used to catch everything, but at some point I started taking better care of myself—or, more accurately, my wife started making sure I took better care of myself—and now it’s rare.I

But every time I do get sick (like last week), I’m reminded how much it really sucks to be sick. It’s not just the coughing or the sinus pressure or the brain fog. It’s knowing there are people counting on me, and I just… can’t show up the way I usually do. I’m sleeping 11 hours on a Monday, or I’m useless on the couch hacking my lungs up while the day moves on without me.

It’s a strange feeling to be needed and unavailable at the same time. I don’t like it. But I guess every once in a while my body decides to remind me I’m not in charge of everything.

Until next time—
Keep the fires burning,
— Clay

If you like Campfire Gentleman, here are a few other newsletters I actually read.

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