Author: daniellekuhl

I’ll just get right to it.  The accusation that speaking out and showing empathy to one is somehow a denial of the pain of another shows just how severely limited our thinking surrounding the topic of empathy is – how stifled our imaginations for collective liberation and peace truly are. We routinely and consistently perform…

Every year I am fortunate enough to draw breath on this incredible planet, with all its beauty and all its horror, is both an astounding and bizarre miracle. Every year I begin to feel more and more settled. Maybe this is the side-effect of being bestowed with the gift of aging. Maybe it is owed…

I’ve always resented the wind,its sudden stops and starts. Manic energy.I let it in. Chaos in my mind.Anxiety in my body.Why? I beg.Why? I plead. Why, why, why do you do this to me?  Today, I sit in the Sierras and instead ofbegging and pleading – instead of rising to irritation,I let go.I unclench, unfurl,and choose to face the…

As I am sure it’s abundantly clear, I am trying to wrap my mind around this whole radical acceptance thing. It’s not like anyone said I had to, it’s just that my mind keeps chewing on it, returning obsessively to it again and again. I have learned that when that happens I have to listen,…

As days go, today felt easyish overall, and yet it was punctuated with moments of shocking and painful harshness. But, having felt a bit more rested, I was able to navigate accordingly, with only minor moments of overwhelm.  I never ceased to be amazed at the human capacity to keep moving forward. It is both…

As I was sobbing to my therapist over Zoom last week, she looked at me with compassionate eyes and said many things that culminated in something like, “What would it look like to practice radical acceptance of yourself, your work, and the world?” And my honest answer was, “I have no idea, and frankly that…

I accept that I am tired beyond tired.  That my desire to soak up and experience all that life has to offer makes me resent and neglect the rest I so desperately need.  I accept that I will never accomplish everything I set out to do each and every day.  That I have limits, even…

Today I watched a woman walk down the streetand was reminded of the ache of longing that used to consume me in moments like those. She was everything I believed wasn’t:lovely, proud, carefree, confident – perfect.I would make up a story about her,one that convinced me that being her would make it all okay – would make…

Clouds hang lowover mountainous landin the long and melancholic lightof evening.  They linger herereaching down tentative tendrilsbrushing along ridges and valleys seeking out quiet spaces. And in the distance blue skies beckonwaiting like a promiseof the good that is to comeuntil earth and sky are one once more. 

Seeds hold destiny in their tiny bodies.  All that is to come packed in tightwaiting for its moment to burst forthand become. We blended our compactness togetherand made new seeds.  A life. One of togetherness.  One of flesh.  The expressions of our devotionworriestendernesschallengeshope. Look my love –look what our seeds made: Pure, incandescent radiance.  Out…