Newsletter Archive
A sample of my favorite issues
“I don’t know how to thank you. You’ve given me permission to embrace my chaos instead of trying to clean it up for someone else. That’s a gift I didn’t know I needed.”
Apples, Part I: From a very early age, we’re taught big outputs require big inputs. To transform our lives, our careers, our relationships, we have to go all in—massive effort, massive risk. “If you want a life that’s easy, do hard things,” yadda yadda yadda. But you're already shaping your life in ways you don’t even realize. The only question now is whether you’re doing it on purpose. Every small action you commit to—every delay, every risk, every word left unsaid—is a radical act of creation. (Read the full issue)
Your move: It’s so easy to get sucked into the process of examining your own beliefs, ideals, temptations, and desires under the shiny mantle of personal growth. Don’t get me wrong, looking inward is a powerful way to uncover deeper meanings and truths. (I'm a big fan of meditation for this reason.) But all too easily, that purposeful introspection can slip into pointless, cowardly navel-gazing — seeking within what you can only find without. (Read the full issue)
Fate: Each of us will experience moments in our lives where kismet, the universe, fate, destiny, a higher power, or pure chance will knock on our door and present us with a choice. But what happens next is up to you. (Read the full issue)
5-year plans suck: Whenever someone asked me to visualize my “dream life” of the future, I couldn’t do it. Whenever someone suggested I write a letter from my future self to me now, I couldn’t think of a damn thing to write other than, “If your glasses are missing, they’re either on your head or in the freezer. You’re welcome.” (Read the full issue)
Opposites: Magnets have two poles (north and south). Only opposite poles attract each other; like poles repel each other. If you want to prevent magnets of opposing poles from connecting with each other as they are designed to do, you have to exert enough force to keep them apart. And the closer you bring those attracting magnets to each other, the more effort it will require to keep them separated. (Read the full issue)
Choose death: Look, I know I’m being a bit melodramatic in this issue. Death. Fiery, suicidal birds. Homicidal Sumerian goddess sisters in desperate need of mediated family counseling. Or maybe just some Xanax. These are not exactly one-to-one comparisons to anything we experience in our own lives as mere mortals. But that doesn’t mean we are exempt from those moments when we must be courageous, as we surrender to the discomfort of a fire we light for ourselves. (Read the full issue)
Darkness: We mistakenly believe that to be moral, one must be free of complexity or contradiction. We assume that the presence of shadows on the edges of our light indicates an irredeemable character flaw or a fracture in the foundation of the values we hold dear. We believe we are fraudulent, broken. However, we enter dangerous territory when we improperly moralize the rich contradictions and dualities that exist within ourselves. (Read the full issue)
Endings: We need to stop believing that something must be a catastrophically broken, toxic, or otherwise destructive force in our lives in order to consider it not right for us. Yes, there is a fine line between “This is not right for me,” and “I’m a pathologically avoidant escape artist who is convinced the grass is greener in every other yard that borders my own.” But I’m not talking to you “grass is greener” folks. I’m talking to the rest of you. (Read the full issue)
Wants: You’ll always lack the insatiable hunger, relentless drive, and visionary problem-solving skills to do and achieve anything because you didn't do the work to define a belief, an idea, or a person worth fighting for. You already have those capabilities within you, but you only unlock them when you fully own up to what it is you really, really fucking want. (Read the full issue)
Honesty: The truth is the most powerful love letter you can ever write to another person. The truth communicates how much you trust the person across from you to catch you on the other side — to see that incredible, squishy, whole version of yourself you likely rarely share with others ... and then allow them the space and ability to love you more for it. (Read the full issue)
Simple vs. complex: We want things that are simple to be complex, because it gives us an excuse to run, to pass the buck, to insulate ourselves from pain or rejection, to play it safe, to avoid the tough decisions we need to make ... that aren’t that tough, if you think about it. (Read the full issue)
