1/8/26 Joy is sharing delight with others. It is the manifestation of spaces that are full of life and love. It’s plants that you’d thought you lost – after much tending and tender talk – budding out again. And it’s the moment you notice, out of the blue, in passing, a fresh green catching your…
Category: thekuhlhuman
The Theft of Our Souls
We are mere weeks into the school year in America and already the country is reeling from yet another mass shooting. Yesterday a gunman opened fire at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, during a Mass celebrating the start of the year, killing 2 children and injuring 17 others. When I got wind of this tragedy,…
Throughline
I haven’t been writing – for kind of a long time – for kind of a lot of reasons. However I had a little revelation today (can revelations ever be little?)… Growing up as an anxious kid with OCD, I have always been a classic oversharer. When a thing happens, one that jostles and pokes…
A Note on Empathy
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…
Light
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…
The Wind
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…
Radical Acceptance #4 – Presence
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,…
Radical Acceptance #3 – Dancing it Out
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…
Radical Acceptance #2 – Skeptical
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…
Radical Acceptance #1 – Tired
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…