“AI accidentally made me believe in the concept of a human soul by showing me what art looks like without it.” ~Unknown What is intelligence? I’ve asked this question all my life—as a teacher, a filmmaker, a researcher, and now, as someone losing my vision to macular degeneration. I ask it when I watch students find their voice. I…
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” ~Audre Lorde For most of my life, I asked myself a quiet question: What’s wrong with me? I didn’t say it out loud. I didn’t have to. It was stitched into how I moved through the world — hyperaware, self-correcting, and always…
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” ~Henry Ford We’ve all been there: happily ticking off life’s checkboxes, certain we’ve cracked the code, until—bam!—life decides otherwise. Divorce papers, layoffs, grief, or unexpected illness—life’s curveballs don’t discriminate. For me, it was a sudden mystery illness at sixteen. What should have been a simple infection changed the…
“It is one thing to lose people you love. It is another to lose yourself. That is a greater loss.” ~Donna Goddard We didn’t mean to fall into anything romantic. It started as friendship, collaboration, long voice notes about work, life, trauma, and healing. We helped each other solve problems. We gave each other pep talks before difficult meetings….
Hi friends! I’m excited to share that the 2026 Tiny Buddha Day-to-Day Calendar is now available for purchase! And equally thrilling, I just found out my calendar was the number one bestseller in the Mind-Body-Spirit category for the last two years. Uplifting and comforting, this calendar offers daily reflections from me, Tiny Buddha contributors, and other authors whose quotes have…
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are.” ~Maya Angelou There was a time in my life when everything felt heavy, like I was constantly carrying around a weight that no one else could see. I wasn’t in a…
“The body keeps the score. If the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera, in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching sensations, then our first priority is to help people ‘feel’ what their bodies are telling them.” ~Bessel van der Kolk I used to think my body was a liar. Because how can something that’s supposed to be wise also be…
“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.” ~W.E.B. Du Bois I was standing at the service bar, waiting for my drink order to be ready. The scent of steak fat clinging to my apron and infusing itself into my bra, while twenty-something servers around me whined about working on Mother’s Day… yet I was the only mother…
“To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be.” ~Jack Kornfield I must admit right off the bat—as a serial entrepreneur, I’m a risk-taker. Throughout my twenties and thirties, I jumped at opportunities without always vetting the characters involved or asking what six months down the road might look like. I…
“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 spiraling in my head,…
