Praise sunlight,
twelve whole hours of it,
Praise cherry blossoms
Praise Robin’s song
Praise little hands
That point out petals
of crocus and tulip
as we walk barefoot
Praise Spring
for sending up
green shoots
Even when they say it’s going to snow
Even when the odds say don’t,
Even when pavement is being poured,
Spring doesn’t listen to anyone but itself.

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My forthcoming memoir, Fierce Joy is everything I know about bravery as a woman, a partner, a parent, a leader, an athlete, an activist, and a brainstem tumor survivor. My editors say it’s fast-paced and beautiful and funny. I say, don’t forget that it’s a love story. This is the memoir I’ve been working on in the pre-dawn darkness every day for the past two and half years. It’s about showing up real in life and at work and what gets in the way, namely perfectionism. It’s about love and death and living life to its fullest. It’s about choosing joy over fear and brave over perfect. It’s about looking underneath our fears to find unlimited joy. It’s about how our striving, saving, and performing to do things the “right” way is making it impossible for us to show up real. It’s about how Fear has become a main character in our lives, and a dangerous obstacle to real change.