Forty-five people gathered for dinner in our neighborhood last month. That’s actually not unusual. What was different this time is that every part of it was run by kids eighteen and under. They organized and planned it. They cooked. They served. The kids built a whole cafe out of nothing, and it worked — the meal was delicious, the room was full, everyone left happy. But I noticed something underneath the success. The miscommunications that happened, and there were a few, di

There are seasons when life asks us to move differently than we'd planned. This year has been one of those seasons for me. A variety pack of health challenges has required me to slow down, pace myself, and accept that my capacity isn't what it used to be. While I haven't always welcomed those limitations, they've uncovered something I wasn't expecting — the stories I tell myself about productivity, self-worth, and what it means to make meaningful progress. The hardest part ha

In college, I worked at a school-to-farm program for high schoolers who needed a different kind of education than what public schools could offer them. I was working with one student in particular who loved photography. She also tended to see the world as black and white. If she perceived something as wrong, her mindset was fixed. If someone criticized her favorite singer, she would get defensive and fight back. Her fervor was so strong it was contagious, and for a brief mom

Recently, I’ve been reliving a traumatic experience. And I mean that quite literally. Something in my present is the exact problem I struggled with in my past, and my nervous system has been revisiting the old experience in real time. It has been disturbing. There’s no doubt about that. But it has also been incredibly healing. Not because the experience is easy. Not because I’ve figured out some magical way to bypass the discomfort. But because this time, I am resourced enoug

Change doesn’t fail because of bad ideas—it fails when we lead with answers instead of curiosity. Learn how connection, collaboration, and shared ownership create more effective and sustainable change.

The other day, on the walk from my daughter’s school to the car, we overheard a teenager listing her instruments: “I know how to play piano. I know how to play clarinet…” My daughter, who’s been studying piano for 5 years, looked up and asked, “What does it mean to know how to play the piano?” Such a simple question. Such a revealing one. We say “I know” as if there’s a finish line. But most meaningful skills don’t work that way. Knowledge expands. Context shifts. Our craft

I had just picked my friend's toddler up from pre-school. We were driving back to her house, listening to music, talking about what we...

I didn’t know it was wrong. Because I thought it was normal. Growing up, there was a lot of arguing and yelling in my family. It was...

A few months ago, a mentor challenged me by asking, "When are you going to stop letting your Trauma define you, Ariana?" I back pedaled,...

I’ve been thinking a lot about how easy it is to name what we want —but how hard it can be to recognize, name, and advocate for what we...

A few months ago I shared an experience where someone commented on a post I made with oppressive rhetoric in a Facebook group to a family...

"When COVID hit we were navigating change in a reactive way. Now it's time for us to be pro-active again." My client recently told the...

I was recently lying on my back, floating in an orb filled with salt water (aka Float Therapy) when my hands and feet kept hitting the...