Nature

“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.” ~Paulo Coelho For years, any time I felt sadness, insecurity, loneliness, or any of those “unwelcome” feelings, I jumped into action. I’d look […]

“You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.” ~Timber Hawkeye Overwhelm doesn’t always knock politely. Sometimes it crashes into my day like an unexpected storm—suddenly I can’t think straight, and everything feels urgent, impossible, and too loud. One minute I’m fine, the next I’m

“Being present for your own life is the most radical act of self-compassion you can offer yourself.” ~Sylvia Boorstein In 2004, I experienced a powerful breakthrough in understanding what it meant to love myself. I could finally understand that self-love is about the relationship that you have with yourself, and that relationship is expressed in

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” ~Alan Watts I must admit, dear reader, that I wasn’t always a fan of change—not even a little. I wouldn’t say I entered this world naturally inclined toward new or unfamiliar things. Like many

“You can’t heal what you won’t allow yourself to feel.” ~Unknown I used to act strong all the time. On the outside, I looked like I had it all together. I was competent, composed, and capable. I was the one other people came to for advice or support. The stickiness was that my version of

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” ~Martin Luther King Jr. My grandmother passed away a few years ago after a long battle with cancer. Even as her health deteriorated, she never lost her spirit. She’d still get excited about whether the Pittsburgh Steelers might finally have a

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” ~Albert Einstein, adapted I often feel like I was born into the wrong story. I grew up in a time when success meant something quieter. My father was a public school music teacher. We didn’t have much, but there was a dignity in

“Even when we fall, we rise again—a little wiser, a little braver, and with a way better story to tell.” ~Jessica W. Bowman The phone call arrived like a silent explosion, shattering the ordinary hum of a Tuesday morning. My uncle was gone, suddenly, unexpectedly. Just a few months later, before the raw edges of

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” ~Carl Jung We all had a wild ride during the pandemic, am I right? Mine included falling in love with a woman. At fifty years old. That’s not something I expected. But isn’t that how life goes? One day you’re baking sourdough and

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” ~Mark Twain Let me set the scene. It’s a blistering summer day in Miami—the kind where the humidity hugs you tighter than your ex at a high school reunion, and the air feels