A birthday reflection on trust, managing disappointment, releasing control, and becoming available for more joy, connection, and possibility Birthdays have become a season of reflection for me. Not just a time to look at what happened over the past year, but an opportunity to notice what it taught me, what I released, and who I became along the way. And this year, one realization keeps rising to the surface: I have spent a lot of my life protecting myself from the good stuff

Alignment called. It wants my emotional support beverages. While sitting at my desk today, attempting to focus on a completely different entrepreneurial task, I had a flash of awareness that I couldn't resist sharing with you. A little over a month ago, four days before I stood on a TEDx stage, I got my scans done for aligners. Invisible adult braces, for those who don't know what aligners are. (I didn't know the term until recently.) And I don't think that timing was an acci