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“What if I accept that all I really want is a small, slow, simple life? A beautiful, quiet, gentle life. I think it is enough.” ~Krista O’Reilly-Davi-Digui Why do we feel such pressure to dream big? I think it starts in childhood when parents, teachers, and other adults start asking the question, “What do you…

“The loneliness of the connected age is not about being alone. It’s about being unseen in a crowd.” ~Unknown For a long time I thought I was broken. Not in a dramatic way. In a quiet, persistent way—the kind you learn to manage so well that most people can’t tell, and eventually you almost can’t…

“Be gentle with yourself. You’re doing the best you can.” ~Unknown   For years, I believed self-awareness was the answer to everything. If I could just understand myself better—my triggers, my patterns, my childhood wounds—I would finally feel calm. Stable. Healed. So I read the books. I journaled every night. I replayed conversations in my head,…

“Vulnerability is the only path through the wall that separates us from each other.” ~Brené Brown Every time I share something deeply personal—an article, a post, a piece of my story somewhere or to someone—there is a part of me that lights up with energy. I feel a sense of urgency, a pull to share…

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ~C. S. Lewis I started life in a poor household with one parent who left when I was very little, never to be seen or heard from again, and another who stuck around but made it…

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~Rumi I watched my son get hit by his father, and something inside me finally broke open. Not broke apart. Broke open. There’s a difference. For years, I had absorbed the chaos. I had made myself smaller, quieter, more accommodating. I had convinced myself that if…

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” ~Viktor Frankl For a while, I forgot about that space. When conflict entered my life—first with my employer, then with my insurance company—I didn’t react explosively. I didn’t fire off reckless emails. I did something that felt…

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” ~Marcus Aurelius Gratitude. It used to be a very triggering concept for me, and sometimes it still is. It’s been a process to unravel what it means to me and to…

“True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.” ~Brené Brown This past year, during a season of transition in my life, I started working part-time as a bridal stylist at a wedding dress store. It was something I had quietly dreamed about for years. I’ve…

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” ~African Proverb It is just past ten in the morning on a Tuesday. My wet boardshorts and blue tank top are drying at lightning speed in the sweltering South Indian sun. I am feeling alive and exhilarated after my surf session in the…