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Last week in Bali, everything stopped. The airport shut down. The streets emptied. There was no Wi-Fi. And for 24 hours, no one was allowed to leave their home. It’s called Nyepi, the Balinese New Year, but it’s nothing like what most of us think of as a “new year.” There are no parties, no countdowns, no noise. It’s a day of complete silence, reflection, and stillness observed by the entire island. What I didn’t expect was that Nyepi isn’t just about the silence. It’s about

Last week I found myself covered in bright pink, yellow, and purple powder, laughing while throwing color at friends, parents, teachers and kids at school. If you’ve ever seen photos of Holi celebrations in India, you know the images. Clouds of color in the air. People dancing. Faces streaked with paint. Laughter everywhere. It’s a festival that welcomes the arrival of spring, a joyful celebration of renewal and life after winter. For years I had seen those images and thought

The other day my daughter walked into the room frustrated. Something had happened at school. A teacher. Some classmates. The details almost don’t matter anymore because what I remember most was the tone. She was stuck in that familiar spiral where one complaint leads to another. I listened for a moment. Then I stopped her. “Wait,” I said. “Take a breath.” She paused. “Tell me something good about the situation.” She looked at me like that was the most unreasonable request I c