Hello, friends!

First, a big welcome to everyone who joined The Daily Wild this week. I'm so glad you're here.

One of the best parts of building this community has been seeing the animals you're pulling each day. Lately, more and more of you have been sharing your Daily Wild cards on Instagram, and it never gets old! There's something so fun about seeing which animal finds its way to you. As you pull your cards this week, tag @yourdailywild so I can see them!

This week, I played a tennis tournament with a wonderful partner. We had two great wins but ultimately didn’t finish on top. There were missed shots, moments I’d love to replay (one particular lob over my head comes to mind!), and points that slipped away. But every tennis player knows something important: once a point is over, you can spend the next rally replaying what happened or you can take a breath and trust yourself enough to play the next ball.

I’ve been thinking about that and strangely enough, the animal that comes to mind in those moments is the Swan...

– El

From a distance, a swan seems to glide effortlessly across the water. Everything about it feels calm, composed, and unhurried. But beneath the surface, its feet are constantly moving… quietly adjusting, pushing, responding to currents no one else can see.

Maybe that's why Swan has always felt like such a powerful animal. Grace isn’t effortless, it’s the quiet decision to keep moving without letting every ripple pull you off course.

Grace isn't pretending it didn't happen. Grace is refusing to let it dictate the next moment.

So many of us wait until everything feels certain before we trust ourselves. We think confidence looks like never doubting, never stumbling, never getting it wrong. But Swan shows us something different.

Self-trust isn’t believing everything will go as planned. It’s believing you’ll know what to do when it doesn’t. And maybe that's why grace is such a gift, not only to ourselves, but to the people around us. We talk about "giving someone grace" because we recognize that we rarely know what's happening beneath the surface.

Someone who seems calm may be carrying grief and someone who appears confident may be working through fear. Someone who looks like they're gliding may be paddling with everything they've got.

You also deserve this same grace. Grace is choosing not to let one mistake define the rest of the day. It's offering yourself the same compassion you would offer a friend. It's assuming the people around you are doing the best they can, even when you can't see the work happening beneath the surface.

Maybe that's the invitation for all of us this week, trust the steady work happening beneath the surface and then let the next moment be a fresh one.

I'm thrilled to finally say yes, you can now order The Daily Wild animal inspiration card decks them from the website. Whether you’re grabbing a set for yourself or looking for a meaningful father’s day gift, they're designed to encourage curiosity, confidence, and a little more connection to the world around us.

As we build this community, I would love more than anything to hear from you. What’s landing? What did you notice this week? What do you want more of? Just reply to this email and let me know.