At no point in her life did my mother ever ask me about my work, nor, to my knowledge, did she ever read any of my three books. But in her final hours, something changed. It was the height of the pandemic and I was teaching an online course at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Sitting next…
I’ll never forget the moment that sparked my book Getting Messy: A Guide to Taking Risks & Opening the Imagination. I was teaching in the teacher credentialing program at UC Berkeley, and one of my students—a soon-to-be teacher—asked if I had any tips for “keeping things under control” in the classroom. She wanted things to…
There was a particular moment in my teaching career when I asked a room full of graduate students to imagine a world beyond what they saw around them. We were discussing creativity, and I could sense their hesitation—they were accustomed to relying on facts, on what was tangible and “real.” I shared that Einstein once…
We’re the most human when we’re being creative. Whether it’s painting a masterpiece, solving a tricky problem, or reimagining a relationship, creativity is what makes us feel alive and connected. It’s not just about art—it’s about engaging with the world in a way that allows for possibility, growth, and transformation. But here’s the thing: creativity…
After I finished my Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, I tried very hard to do what I was ‘supposed’ to do… get a tenure-track position at some respectable university. But I couldn’t do it. Instead, I moved to the wilderness of northwest Montana and lived in a teepee for a few years. Here’s what…
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