Spirit, Sand, and Sea

There was a time when the wellness world felt like a refuge to me. It spoke of integration and wholeness — of returning to oneself. I entered those spaces, as many of us did, because I was searching. I wanted steadiness. I wanted meaning. I wanted relief from the fracture that life can sometimes bring. And yet, somewhere along the way, something began to feel different. What once felt grounded can now feel curated. What once seemed humble sometimes carries hierarchy just bene

I recently watched an interview with a high-powered executive coach who has built her career working in spaces traditionally dominated by white men. During the conversation, she offered a piece of advice that immediately caught my attention: “Don’t bring your authentic self to work. Bring your professional self. You can bring your authentic self to Thanksgiving dinner.” Her comment made me pause. Not because professionalism is unimportant, it is essential, but because the sta

When I hear people talking about work–life balance, it is usually because they are unhappy and/or unhealthy, and they believe work is playing a significant role in that imbalance. And often, it is. Recently, while scrolling through LinkedIn, I noticed a series of videos about work–life balance. Each speaker offered a different perspective. I didn’t completely disagree with any of them, but I felt that most of the explanations were incomplete. One person spoke about people who

This reflection is part of the work I explore more deeply in Leading Bravely, the book I’m writing about resilience, loss, and the courage it takes to rebuild a self when everything familiar has changed. If you are navigating your own unexpected life—your own broken body, broken heart, broken plan—my hope is that you will find recognition here, and maybe even possibility. Bravery is not always loud. Sometimes it looks like walking slowly. Sometimes it looks like asking for he

Leadership is, at its core, relational. It is not about authority or control, but about cultivating trust and belonging — the invisible threads that connect people to one another and to a shared purpose. Without those threads, leadership becomes transactional, and transformation becomes superficial. Equity is what strengthens and sustains those connections. It creates the conditions in which real change, personal, organizational, and societal, can take root. People cannot bri

There are places that live in us long after we leave them. For me, the Dominican Republic is one of those places — a landscape of memory, spirit, and return. I’ve spent a lifetime moving between worlds: North and South, land and sea, past and present. Each crossing has taught me that belonging isn’t about where we’re born, but where our soul finds stillness. This is a story about home — and the way we carry it with us. I was born in New York City. When people asked, “Where ar

There have been moments in my career when staying true to my values felt like an act of rebellion. Not because I wanted to defy anyone, but because the systems I worked within were built to reward compliance more than conscience. As a school leader, I often found myself standing in that tension — the invisible intersection between values and expectations. It’s a place that every woman leader eventually finds herself: the crossroads between what we know to be right and what th

Have you ever resisted a part of yourself that’s been trying to emerge for years? That quiet voice that says there’s more to me than this  — but you keep silencing it because life feels too demanding, too practical, too full? For me, that voice was the artist inside me. For decades, I resisted calling myself an artist. Growing up, art was never spoken about as an option. Livelihood meant stability. Success meant following a linear path — study hard, get a good job, and work y

The Life You Didn’t Choose: Resilience There are moments that divide a life into before  and after. Before the diagnosis. Before the...

There are moments in life when the ground beneath you gives way, when all the plans you’ve carefully made scatter like sand in the wind....