(this is an email I sent out to my subscribers on Oct 17th 2023)

I’ve tried writing this email several times last week and couldn’t.
The words. The tears. The soul-crushing sadness. Being back in NY for the week (visa stamps) All of which prevented me from forming anything on a blank page.

No place for ai in that blinking cursor moment.

I know I don’t have to address anything. “Stick to storytelling. Stay in your lane, I hear my subconscious say.”

This is not my story to tell.  

I’m not Jewish. Not Muslim.
I don’t understand what it’s like to live with generational & survivorship trauma and be part of a group that consistently has to fear for their safety.
I have never been on a travel ban list because of my religion.
Never felt persecution. 

And the education about the complexities of the region has been served to me in infographics, and 1-minute video reels.

Who are you to even write this? To feel this much pain?

But as a mother.
A storyteller
A former TV news producer
A woman who has been in refugee camps
A pregnant person who has held the hands of mothers exiting overcrowded boats that have just capsized with their babies lost to the sea
A business owner who has been unable to do any meaningful work…

…I need to write this in order to channel my grief (and hopefully give you permission too if you are struggling like me) so that I can do the work I am meant for on this Earth – something I have not been able to do for well over a week now. 

I know I will probably lose followers after this email. Maybe even future business.
I hope not, but that is always the risk you take when you speak your truth.

If anyone is able to get to the point of losing their own humanity by looking at the kidnapped & murdered Israeli kids and knowing it’s horrible but somewhere deep down in your soul saying to yourself, “WELL…it’s BECAUSE……(insert anything)”

We have lost our way as humans. 

If anyone is able to look at what is now looking like an annihilation of an entire group of people in Gaza – genocide? History will tell us – and think yeah that is horrible but somewhere deep down in your soul saying to yourself, “WELL…it’s BECAUSE….(insert anything)”

We have lost our way as humans. 

We ALL should not be OK with any of this.

This is not a sporting match. We are not in the Hunger Games.

Children must be protected. Always and without exception.

It’s always the mothers. The kids. The ones who disproportionately suffer from the violent decisions of men.

And for what?

Now that I am no longer in the media where I can give an outlet to my pain by sharing the stories of the victims, the oppressed, the traumatized children, I have been struggling on what to do with all of this despair.

“Bearing witness” is excruciating at times, but we must listen and TRY to emphasize.
Or at the very least agree that needless death to kids is morally unacceptable.

Radical empathy. My friend Valentina -who came with me to Greece twice to be on those shorelines and in the refugee camps -sent me this note this week.



If you are hurting right now, me too.
If you are weeping at the images and videos that are coming out of Gaza, me too.
If you are weeping at the poster pages of all the kidnapped Israeli children, me too. 
If you do not understand how humans can be so cruel to one another and murder kids, me too.
If you are unable to work, find joy in things you should and feel low level depressed, me too.
If you are sad at what friends are saying and not saying, me too. If you are scared about what happens next, me too.

So what AM I CHOOSING TO DO?

Today…I am choosing to impact my own small corner in the best way I know how, which is now helping OTHERS tell THEIR own stories in the most compelling way possible.

To help others find the words that will inspire the most.
To help others open their mouths to convey what they feel in their heart
To help others show up for their own communities through storytelling.

Tomorrow I am going to be focusing on helping others through my content and how to be a better storyteller in their business.
Tomorrow I will lean into being a more present mom, friend and wife.
Tomorrow I hope for greater emotional flexibility, dialectical capacity and compassionate humanity.

Tomorrow is a gift that we should all not take for granted.

Let’s all make tomorrow a better world than it is today.