When pain, discomfort, and struggle arise, we tend to run away. But beauty can be found in the breakdown and it is by moving toward our discomfort that we can transform the energy within the challenge.
This time of year is typically all about expressing love to your significant others, friends, and family. Since all of this love is already in the air, I can't think of a better time to also learn to fall in love with something that is way less appealing but just as essential: the gifts of our struggle.
Take a moment to get honest about what is nudging you, weighing you down, and holding you back. It really is true that what we resist persists. When you fight against that which burdens you, what you’re really doing is amplifying your discomfort. If there's anything we've learned in the past year, it's how much beauty and opportunity can still be found even when we're confronted with deep loneliness and loss.
Today, my message to you is to move toward discomfort, don’t run away! When we claim the gifts of our struggles, our breakdowns, our challenges, we completely transform the quality of them.
Have sex with your struggle and let me know in the comments: what's causing you discomfort that could be a great opportunity for your growth?
We are enamored by the light but it’s the dark that we must become intimate with.
Light and dark are not opposing forces. They are necessary ingredients or aspects of the Whole. They require one another.
Our ability to be in the dark and not run from it is our access to freedom, power, presence, and love. Would you love all of you? Would you ask how this moment of heartbreak may be necessary for our evolution?
✨ How comfortable are you with your shadow?
✨ How willing are you to be with the unknown?
✨ How trusting are you of the unseen?
All month long I’m making magic in the dark with my community of practitioners—in Our Circle and through Truth Texts.
✨ We’re exploring faith beyond dogma and doctrine.
✨ We’re leaning into trust even when it’s uncomfortable.
✨ We’re calling for the surrender of righteousness as a path to peace.
To understand the nature of Life is to learn to be with paradox and understand it as a tool for transformation.
If you want to look beyond the literal with me this month text “I’m in” to 773.923.0358 and I’ll send you a daily voice memo inviting you to Make Magic in the Dark. ✨✨✨
Today I turn 48. And this month my heart has exploded.
On Friday Nathan turned 49.
We are entering his 50th year and our 20th anniversary with a desire to be intentional about the next fifty.
This year has been a deep dive on our health, a reset on our relationship, and a new vision for what life looks like with fewer demands and more stability.
We’re dreaming together. We’re creating space.
We’ve called in our brilliant community to support our dreams and visions for this next chapter. That started this month at Awake Ranch in Oregon with two of our favorites, @laurynhenley and @bradlyman , leading us in the most transformative couples retreat.
Excited to support Juliana Stratton and her senatorial race—midterms are just two weeks away!! Grateful to be an Illinoisan and deeply value her leadership.
Our project @nuluum in Logan Square received Gold at the @landscapeillinois Excellence in Landscape Awards - a garden and gathering space providing plant growth and people growth. Daydreaming with @lolapwright and @nathanwrightla about how to revitalize Nuluum in a high-impact, fast time-lined, and inspired way was a highlight of 2025, and I can’t wait to share what else we’re cooking up at @nathanwrightlandscape
We took a defunct landscape yard in Logan Square and transformed it into a connected campus of garden rooms—redefining how a working yard can also support community gathering.
Big thanks to @landscapeillinois and our entire team @nathanwrightlandscape for the ingenuity, hustle, grit, and extra love it took to reimagine our space for the people of Chicago.
Tonight we won a Gold Award for Commercial Landscape Construction at the 2026 Excellence in Landscape Awards hosted by Landscape Illinois.
Two of our favorite Chicago artists and good friends @_slangism and @heyitsmatthew contributed their incredible work to the space. And @enfuzechicago and @outdoor.lighting.perspectives brought the extra magic through sound and landscape lighting.
@nuluum is a really special place, we hope you visit us soon.
