Day 2: Into the mountains 4:45 am - Wake up (jet lag again!) to a lovely clear day. Morning chill, meditation, walk, swim, and/or run (depending on who you are). Bridget and I wander and explore some other lakeside parks before the humidity and dust fill our pores and lungs. 8 am - Our eyes pop and stomachs growl when we return, and we pile plates high at our 5-star, multi-national breakfast buffet spread: made to order fresh-pressed juices, eggs, waffles, pancakes, 4 kinds of specialty water...
20 days ago • 6 min read
Day 1: Kathmandu to Pokhara 5 am: Wake up (jet lag!) Actually, this is just when I finally GET up. Early morning market 6-7:30 am: Explore twisting, narrow streets of the Thamel neighborhood around our hotel: which before the streets are crowded with motor bikes feels like we’ve been transported back to the 18th century. This is what I wanted China to look like, but mostly didn’t, thanks to the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s that destroyed most of the weathered, beautifully carved wooden...
21 days ago • 4 min read
Namaste! or, Hello, in Nepalese. Annapurna South (right peak), is 23,684 feet tall, while Annapurna I (left peak) is actually 26,545 ft! I just spent the last 2 weeks on the other side of the world, trekking among the world's tallest mountains, on an epic trip unlike any other I've had before. One of my best friends bought me hiking boots for Hannukah this year and so I proposed a trip to break them in: Nepal - a place I've long dreamed of visiting. Before leaving I deeply wanted - needed -...
22 days ago • 3 min read
Confession: I have a fear of ocean waves. I've had recurring nightmares of tsunamis all my life and spent too long caught in the under toe of a big wave while boogie boarding as a kid. So I NEVER had any intention of surfing. Sure, others may find that thrilling, but definitely not in my wheelhouse of fun! Until I decided to push my own boundary. Maybe it was to model doing something that scared me to my kids - to show them it's possible to be scared of something, and do it anyways. healthy...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Let's talk about slow productivity. Last spring JR and I drove up and across Vancouver Island, a huge, sparsely populated island off the coast of British Columbia, to spend a long weekend in a profoundly beautiful coastal village called Tofino. Between hikes in hold growth forests and log-strewn beaches, we listened to a book on the concept of slow productivity. The idea that there was a "lost art to accomplishment without burnout" intrigued me, as I'd been grappling with the idea of balanced...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Hey friend, This week was hard. I think I'm withdrawal. 😣 It was the first week I didn't get to escape to the pottery studio in two years (excluding session breaks) - and I have another 10 weeks to go!! Before you roll your eyes at me, hear me out. last look at the kiln room.... the trap The world is always telling you to focus and narrow your goals, strive harder - this is the key to success. It's easy to take this at surface value and deprioritize everything that doesn't directly benefit...
3 months ago • 5 min read
This may be controversial but, I do not think asymmetry and balance are contradictory. Quite the opposite: I need both for a meaningful life. unlikely animal friends - ambition and balance :) The tension between working ambitiously and with more balance is a constant companion of mine. I recently listened to a podcast that challenged me to really think about this, hard. The guest, Graham Weaver, had a life philosophy grounded in his lived experience as a private equity investor that on the...
3 months ago • 3 min read
I don’t believe in “magic pills,” but if there was one, it would be AWE. northern lights I'm reading Dacher Keltner's 2023 book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder & How it Can Transform Your Life, and it’s really opening my eyes to what feels like a secret that I already knew: awe transforms our brains and bodies in a radical and deeply personal way. Awe is the feeling of "being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world." Think: chills,...
3 months ago • 5 min read