And the Chutzpah Award Goes to…..

After watching the show Pluribus, I see the difficulty of having Chutzpah. Ahhh how easy it is to go along to get along. Carol knows down deep in her kishkes (a deep, gut-level feeling or intuition) that things are not right. That the world isn’t better just when it is easier. That the friction of life IS life.

Carol, and others, have inspired my word for this year: Chutzpah. Chutzpah means audacity, bravery, courage. The example provided in Collins American English Dictionary is “Einstein had the chutzpah to discard long-established theory.”

I want more Chutzpah in my life. I want to be like Carol. I want to be like Einstein. They are my northstars. But I have other living, breathing north stars in my life. Friends who have Chutzpah. And I want to be more like them.

I want to be like my friend Sujatha Baliga who I met freshman year of college and knew she was going to do incredible things. She was named a 2019 MacArthur Fellow for her decades of work in conflict transformation and restorative justice. She has channelled her life experiences, wisdom and charisma to help others. She has had the courage to take a charged topic like criminal justice and offer an alternative framework of forgiveness and justice reform.

I want to be more like Stefanie Michele, a somatic coach (also, my somatic coach), who fosters courageous liberation. Stefanie brings nuance to the conversation around women’s bodies, beauty standards and healing. She is smart, curious and provocative. I love this quote from one of her blogs: “So when a woman opts out [of beauty and diet culture]—when she lets her face soften and says “I’m not playing”—that is some bold disobedience.” Ooooh do I love how she names it—fearlessly. This is what I want more of in my life.

I want to be more like my yoga and writing teacher Anna Guest-Jelley. She created a thriving community called Curvy Yoga "in 2010 because she figured she couldn’t possibly be the only person on Earth who wanted to practice yoga in an accessible and enjoyable way in a curvy body, which turned out to be quite the understatement.” Anna offers something new, original, disruptive and, it turns out, magical.

I want to be surrounded by people like my friend Katrina Busselle who writes about courage. She has made a business of helping others be brave so they can do extraordinary things. Check out her book A Million Reasons Why You Can’t and Choosing To Do It Anyway. When I told Katrina that I am a nervous flyer which makes me a nervous traveller, she wasn’t having it. “Ok” she said “well you are just not going to be a nervous traveller anymore. It’s not working for you. You are going to tell yourself a different story”. I was like ok, I can do that. And Voila! I’m off to California in a week, Bahamas in April and Kenya in June.

How can we be brave enough to forgive, to challenge the status quo to create a community for people who are seeking an alternative, to do things that scare us? This is my goal for the year. To have Chutzpah in a transformative, disruptive and loving way.

I encourage you to follow my northstars along with me. Sujatha, Stefanie, Anna and Katrina are rock stars and I hope you invite them into your life too.

Who are your northstars when it comes to courage?